2005 February-March TBCMedia Update

For Carmel News A Good Start for TBCMP January 2005 was a good start for TBCMP. An invitation from the Australian Embassy came in December of last year asking if TBCMP can work in partnership with them during their annual National Day. After a meeting with Elizabeth Reymundo, the public affairs officer, the Australian Embassy and TBCMP agreed to set everything together with the UP Film Institute on January 24-28, 2005. TBCMP through its pelikula@titusbrandsma program made the line up for the Cinema Australia Film Festival, a week long celebration of Austalia’s best films to honor its greatest filmmakers. With the help of the pelikula core group, a good line up of films was shown composed of the Japanese Story, as the opening film, an award winning film about a geologist and a Japanese businessman playing out a story of human inconsequence. The rest of films were: He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, The Interview, The Year My Voice Broke and the Last Wave. The opening started with a cocktail and a short speech by key people including Fr. Christian B. Buenafe, O. Carm. TBCMP’s Module on Interfaith Dialogue The Titus Brandsma Center-Media Program with its local partner the Blessed Virgin Mary Chaplaincy of Mindanao State University of Marawi City (MSU) organized a half-day seminar composed of Christian and Muslim audience who is into interfaith dialogue. The newest module in the TBCMP’s line up of courses is Media and Spirituality: The State of Philippine Media and the Importance of Media and Communication in Interfaith Dialogue. The seminar held last February 26 at the OVCRE Conference Room was co-organized by the MSU-Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao and the Ranao Muslim Christian Movement for Dialogue and Peace. An open forum followed after the lecture and their concerns were valid, how the media plays a big role in dividing Muslim and Christians through unfair reporting. Aside from the seminar, TBCMP presented the Media and Spirituality through Film Dialogue course, again to a mix audience of Muslims and Christians at the MSU where the College of Psychology co-sponsored the event. TBCMP showed the film Children of Heaven of Iran, wherein one can see that even in a Muslim country, Christian values are still evident and that the values espoused are really universal and for all of us. The same course was also given to Stella Maris College, Oroquieta City. The whole faculty and selected students attended the seminar. Metro Manila Seminars TBCMP was also invited to give the seminar on Parenting in the Multimedia Age at the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Villamor, Airbase. This was held last January 22, 2005 from 9-12 NN.

In Cavite, the Augustinian Sisters of our Lady of Consolation invited TBCMP to give the module Media and Spirituality through Film Dialogue to the members of their cooperative last January 29, 2005, 1-5 PM at their multipurpose hall. Formation of Religious Life TBCMP as a part of the Philippine Church Communicators Network (PCCNet), attended a planning meeting for the Association of Major Religious Superiors (AMRSP) together with the other Church workers on media. In the discussion, present were as follows: Fr. James Reuters, S.J., Sr. Consolata Manding, FSP (Paulines), Mrs. Zenaida Rotea (CBCP Women’s Desk Cinema), Fr. Franz Josef-Eilers, SVD and Mr. Anthony Roman (FABC-Office of Social Communication), and Ms. Delia Hernandez (Philippine Association of Media Education). This planning meeting is all about a seminar workshop that would help religious superiors understand better the new communication culture and from that understanding, the formation of a more communicative attitude would be possible. Instead of reacting towards the new culture that they may see its relevance today. TBCMP was one of the invited guests in the planning session to help in organizing the seminar. The seminar-workshop is tentatively themed as “Religious Life in a New Communication Culture.” It will be held on August, 2005. Experiencing Poetry Bro. Arnold Alindayu, O. Carm attended a night of poetry reading session and music at the Fudge Bar in España, Manila. The poetry reading session was organized by Fullhouse, School of Performance and Creative Arts (Fullhouse-SPCA) last February 25. This was a minor fund raising activity for Fullhouse to help in the building of the Multi-Media Library and Learning Center (MMLRC). TBCMP is currently a part of the Board of Trustee of Fullhouse.