3rd Bakunawa Film Festival opens today

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.The Bakunawa Film Festival, now on its 3rd year as staged by Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.the University of St. La Salle (USLS) — Bacolod, The Artists’ Hub of USLS, The Negros Museum and Western Visayas Filmmakers Network, opens today.
A separate screening day (April 27, 2016) for all competing films and guest films at the USLS Mutien Marie Auditorium. The awards night on April 29 will be held at SMX, SM City Bacolod.
Bakunawa Film Fest is not directly connected to USLS but is staged to honor USLS Film Summer classes outputs in Film Production and Visual Design for Film with merges Production Design and Cinematography. This year, it is moving to SM City Bacolod with guest films.
Chairman of the USLS Mass Communication Department is Hannah Mariveles. Co-Festival Directors are Tanya Lopez and Banares.
One, the music video by music artist Geej Langlois featuring Rosco Cofreros and Leezo Calderon Dionzon and megged by Banares has been accepted at Ozark Shorts, a series of free curated screenings at Ozark, Missouri, Las Vegas in Nevada and North Hollywood in California. Produced by E Unlimited & Performance Lab, it was shot Bacolod City.

JASMINE INTROS BOYFRIEND AT WORLD VISION FUNDRAISER. Jasmine Curtis-Smith admitted in Sunday’s Gandang Gabi Vice her romantic relationship with surfer Jeff Ortega. But this writer scooped the buzz in March when Jeff escorted Jasmine at the P5,000-per-plate World Vision Charity Dinner and Art Auction held at the Marriot Café of Marriott Hotel Manila where she emerged as the top bidder.
    A partnership between World Vision Philippines through organizer Maf Aguila and Kunst Gallery and Kunst Pilipino Gallery through the lead of art impresario Virgilio Cuizon, it raised P1.6 million, 50 percent of which was allocated to the participating visual artists. Jasmine made generous bids for Aris Bagtas’ mixed media on circular wood, La Esperanza, for P100,000 and Emmanuel Bueza’s pen and ink, San Agustin Church, for P28,000.

PALMYRA NOW. From the destruction of the ancient city Palmyra could well be the Vietnam of the Middle East.
Palmyra, in the Homs countryside northeast of Damascus, is a place of ancient ruins that are considered to be among the world’s most treasured. Recognized by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site, it used to be one of the most visited tourist spots in Syria when life there was relatively peaceful.
Lebanon’s architectural antiquities having grabbed my fascination once based in Beirut as country manager of a Saudi-owned American-style fastfood chain, I was enticed to visit Palmyra which was not too far from the capital city by land travel.
But I decided not to push through having experienced how stone-headed Syrian soldiers who manned Lebanon’s check points did not speak English and who were clueless that “Filipinis” as Filipinos are called in Arabic are not all domestic helpers.
Palmyra changed hands on a number of occasions between different empires before becoming a subject of the Roman Empire in the first century AD. Influenced by Greco-Roman culture, it produced distinctive art and architecture that combined eastern and western traditions. The city’s inhabitants worshiped Mesopotamian and Arab gods.
The Palmyrenes were renowned merchants who established colonies along the Silk Road and operated throughout the Roman Empire. The city grew wealthy from trade caravans. This affluence enabled the construction of monumental projects, such as the Great Colonnade, the Temple of Bel and the distinctive tower tombs.
In 2015, Palmyra came under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, tagged derogatorily as ISIS), which later destroyed the ancient constructions.
In keeping with strict Sharia interpretations of the depiction of human forms, they smashed and statues on the floor and chipped off their faces. Authorities evacuated what they could from the museum, but larger items and those fixed to walls had to be left to the mercies of the invading militants.
The city was recently retaken by the Syrian Army in March 2016. After recapturing Palmyra from ISIS, Syrian forces say they’re uncovering grim evidence of how the Islamist terror group conducted its 10-month occupation of the ancient Syrian city.
Photos show how militants destroyed the Lion of Al-lat and other statues, including the 1,800-year-old Arch of Triumph and the nearly 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin. Unesco called the temple’s destruction a war crime.
ISIS destroyed the Temple of Bel and three of its best preserved tower tombs including the Tower of Elahbel. The trouble with the self-proclaimed caliphate, it also destroyed buildings with no religious meaning such as the Arch of Triumph. But some the ancient ruins remain in good condition. Evil it seems is not absolute.
There is global antipathy for these wanton destrucuons and support for Palmyra. A replica of Arch of Triump had been recently built and unveiled in London’s Trafalgar Square.
Constructed by experts from Oxford’s Institute of Digital Archeology, It is an act of solidarity with Syria to raise awareness of the fight to safeguard its ancient treasures.
It looks like the transfer of excavated antiquities from their Eastern original sites to the West like that of the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany is one of the best ways to conserve them. But this is not fool-proof as the Pergamon Museum suffered the ravages of World War II.