Estonia A-List Film Fest Screens 5 PH Films, 'KALEL, 15' Gets World Premiere

Wazzup Pilipinas!






Jun Robles Lana’s latest film “KALEL, 15” will have its World Premiere under the Official Selection programme of the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival on November 29, 2019 in Tallinn, Estonia. It is the only Filipino film in the official competition, and it will be up against 20 films from all over the world.

“KALEL, 15” tells the story of a teenager who is the son of a priest and is HIV positive, and how he has to make choices no child should ever have to make. It stars the late Eddie Garcia, Jaclyn Jose, Elijah Canlas, Elora Espano, and Gabby Padilla, and was co-produced by The IdeaFirst Company, Octobertrain Films, and Cignal Entertainment.

TheIdeaFirst Company co-president and director-producer Perci Intalan is looking forward to showcasing their film in Northern Europe for the first time. He shared, “We’re very excited about the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival because this is the world premiere of ‘KALEL, 15.’ We chose to premiere here because this is Jun’s first film in this festival. We feel the audience and market in Tallinn would be right for our film.”

He expressed that their team is lucky because their producing partners at Cignal Entertainment understood the importance of the world premiere status and knew the significance of having a good festival strategy. “Like for most films, it’s always tricky because you submit the film and hope it will be shortlisted, but at the same time, you have to decide carefully to whom you will give your world or international premiere.”

Last September, director Jun Robles Lana shared a still from the film on Twitter. “This is the realization of a passion project almost 5 years in the making from the time I pitched it at the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum. Looking forward to our world premiere soon.”

Prior to having its world premiere in Tallin, the drama film participated in various events until it finally took shape to the film that it is now. Director Intalan said, “’KALEL, 15’ is a film that has been in development since 2014. It was part of the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum in 2014 under the title ‘Our Father’ and again in 2019 (in the Work-In-Progress Lab) under the title ‘Son of God.’”

Representatives from “KALEL, 15” will be attending the Tallin Film Festival. According to Director Intalan, the team hopes to apply for travel assistance from the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), the country’s national film agency. “Since we’re in the main competition and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is one of the few festivals where the main competition offers a wide range of awards that include Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Cinematography, traveling to Tallinn are our director Jun Robles Lana, our producer Ferdinand Lapuz, our cinematographer Carlo Mendoza, and our lead actor Elijah Canlas (who will be participating in an international film festival for the first time).”

Director Intalan also noted, “Jun has premiered films in Tokyo (‘Die Beautiful’ and ‘Barber’s Tales’) and in Karlovy Vary (‘Shadow Behind the Moon.’)” Director Lana’s previous films "Shadow Behind The Moon," “Die Beautiful,” and “Barber’s Tales” brought home awards at various film festivals, including the 13th Pacific Meridian Film Festival, 20th International Film Festival of Kerala, and 29th Tokyo International Film Festival, among others.

“KALEL, 15”’s world premiere screening will be followed by a Q and A session with Jun Robles Lana, Elijah Canlas, Carlo Mendoza, and Ferdinand Lapuz.

Other Filipino Films Participating in the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

Aside from “KALEL, 15,” four other Filipino films are part of the lineups in Tallin Film Festival.

“KALEL, 15”’s world premiere screening will be followed by a Q and A session with Jun Robles Lana, Elijah Canlas, Carlo Mendoza, and Ferdinand Lapuz.

Other Filipino Films Participating in the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

Aside from “KALEL, 15,” four other Filipino films are part of the lineups in Tallin Film Festival.

Photo from the Tallin Black Nights Film Festival website

Cinemalaya 2019 Best Film “John Denver Trending” by Arden Rod Condez is the only Asian film in competition under its category and is set to have its European premiere under the Just Film Youth Competition programme, Tallin Film Fest’s biggest sub-festival. The Quantum Films-produced film stars newcomer Jansen Magpusao and Meryll Soriano.

On the other hand, “Mindanao” by Brillante Mendoza, which had its European premiere at Tallinn Film Festival last November 15, is part of the Signature section. The film was produced by Center Stage Productions, and it features Judy Ann Santos and Allen Dizon. It was also part of the programmes in the Busan International Film Festival, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, Kolkata International Film Festival, and Cairo International Film Festival.

Photo from the Tallin Black Nights Film Festival website

Meanwhile, after competing at the 32nd Tokyo International Film Festival, Paul Soriano’s “Mañanita” had its European premiere under the Rebels with a Cause Competition programme at Tallinn Film Festival last November 25. The film was written by celebrated filmmaker Lav Diaz and produced by Ten17P, and stars Bela Padilla and Ronnie Lazaro. Filipino audiences can anticipate for the film’s scheduled wide release in Philippine cinemas on December 4.

Completing the Filipino entries for Tallinn Film Festival is “Verdict,” Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s feature debut which was produced by award-winning filmmaker Brillante Mendoza. It screened under the Festival’s Current Waves programme last November 16. The film features Max Eigenmann, the late Kristoffer King, Lourdes Javelosa-Indunan, Vincent Aureus, Jorden Suan, and Rene Durian, and was produced by Center Stage Productions and Films Boutique. It was also shown in Philippine cinemas last September during the third Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP).

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is the only competitive feature film festival in Northern Europe with the accreditation of International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), making it the only A-film festival in Northern Europe which shares the status with the world’s leading festivals, such as Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Karlovy Vary, Warsaw, and San Sebastian.

On the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival website, Festival Director Tiina Lokk said that the Festival aims “to find talented and strong films from amongst the whole world’s film production, to discover new films and filmmakers, and to promote smaller filmmaking countries that simply cannot otherwise get their foot in beside the renowned countries.”

The 23rd Black Nights Film Festival runs from November 15 to December 1, 2019 in Estonian cities of Tallinn and Tartu.

How to Write Better and Create SEO Friendly Content Too

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Writing the SEO friendly content is definitely not an easy job. Cheapcustompapers gives you more tips and tricks to improve your SEO based content writing.

1. Use headings and subtitles

The use of headlines and subtitles is important for SEO for several reasons.

First, you can quickly look through the text. So it's easier to read. People are more willing to share easy-to-read content.

The same is true for search engine robots. When walking on the page, they recognize the headers and use them to better understand the content, e.g. assess which parts are most important, etc.

Also, headers and subtitles help even saturate the page with keywords. However, remember not to abuse this option.

2. Add links to existing content

One of the ways search engine positioning is to evaluate the number of backlinks a site has.

Good content usually has a lot of backlinks - both external and internal.

If you want to direct traffic to your site and position older content better, be sure to link them in new posts.

This will help search engine robots - and users - find your best articles.

Besides, linking to high-quality good sites has a positive effect on your site's position. The better the links, the higher your position in search results.

Also, the use of reliable sources to create content inspires the trust of recipients.

3. Optimize the length of the content

Once, most blog posts had up to several hundred words. It was about numbers - the more published posts, the more traffic to the site.

It rarely happens today. Even on the GetResponse blog, you are reading, you will usually find articles with a length of 1500 words and more, published less frequently.

This is because in the last few years Google has started to give greater priority to longer, higher quality content. He wants to provide the most accurate answers possible. It often boils down to the fact that the posts are to contain the most detailed answers to questions asked by users.

It is no longer enough to write an article for 300 words. However, it is not about blurring the subject of the texts too much.

Take a look at Google Analytics reports and see which content generates the most engagement. Which are the most visited and which users read the longest? Analyze what content has the highest conversion, e.g. newsletter subscription.

And then use this information to determine the best approach that works for your industry.

4. Choose your keywords wisely

Some marketers like to just sit down and start writing. They leave SEO optimization at the end.

Others start by writing down the keywords they intend to use in the content.

I prefer the second approach.

You start by defining keywords that are relevant to the topic you're working on. You are looking for them in your head, you use a keyword planning tool available on Google or a more advanced solution like Ahrefs or SERPSTAT. Or you rent an SEO agency that will take care of everything on your behalf.

And when you start writing, use keywords in the title, header, meta descriptions, ALT tags, and the main content.

5. Optimize graphics

If you want the content to be interesting and shared, you'll need graphics. People are much more eager to buy from companies whose websites contain attractive and matching photos.

You can optimize your photos by adding keywords to image file names and creating ALT tags.

Also, make sure you optimize the image size. Too large photos will take longer to load, and this will have a bad effect on SEO.

The images should be as small as possible, but still clearly visible and of good quality. In many photo editors, you can use the built-in tools to optimize them. If you do not have such a program, Squoosh will be an alternative, a free tool with which you can resize images and compress them quickly.

6. Enable content sharing

You've managed to prepare an SEO friendly, content-rich and interesting article that readers read with pleasure. The next step is to make it available. Sites such as ShareThis or AddThis allow you to easily put social buttons on the page so that users can easily share content.

7. Create high-quality content

This should be an obvious matter, but it is not always remembered. The best way to encourage users to read and get involved is to create useful and fun content. Search engines appreciate sites with high-quality content on the right topic. Quality matters more than any other factor.

Once you have a good idea of how to write and format content, consider using one of the tools below to simplify the texts and streamline the process of creating them.

Pinoy-made Ocean Waste Collector and Dengue Mapper to Join the NASA Global Hackathon

Wazzup Pilipinas!

A deployable, autonomous ocean waste collection system utilizing space data to locate nearby garbage patches built by students from De La Salle University and an automated information portal which correlates dengue cases with real-time data from satellite, climate, and search engines won the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's International Space Apps Challenge last October 18-20, 2019 in Manila, in collaboration with the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCIEERD), Animo Labs technology business incubator, PLDT InnoLab, American Corner Manila, the U.S. government, and part of the Design Week Philippines with Department of Trade and Industry-Design Center of the Philippines.

Upper row Associate American Corner librarian Donna Lyn G. Labangon, Space Apps leader Dr. Paula S. Bontempi, former DICT Usec. Monchito B. Ibrahim, Animo Labs executive director Mr. Federico C. Gonzalez, DOST-PCIEERD deputy executive director Engr. Raul C. Sabularse, PLDT Enterprise Core Business Solutions vice president and head Joseph Ian G. Gendrano, lead organizer Michael Lance M. Domagas, and Animo Labs program manager Junnell E. Guia. Lower row Janos Lance L. Tiberio, Samantha Maxine Santos, Grant Lewis Bulaong, and Antonio Miguel S. Alejo of Ocean's 4 who developed PaWiKAN.

Using NASA's Ocean Surface Current Analysis Real-time (OSCAR) data to determine possible locations of ocean garbage patches using GPS, PaWiKAN uses a pair of deployable, dynamically reconfigurable boats capable of trapping and returning ocean waste back to ground. It is equipped with extended-range radio system based on LoRa technology and Arduino to communicate with sensors and controlled by a deployment station. It was developed by Lasallian electronics and communications engineering students Samantha Maxine Santos, Antonio Miguel S. Alejo, Grant Lewis Bulaong, and Janos Lance L. Tiberio of Ocean's 4, who also joined the last year's hackathon, creating a hyper-casual puzzle game utilizing images from the Hubble Space Telescope and intuitive physics concepts.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCuPRzuEhdI



"Our global bodies of water are actually littered with plastics. This is a very futuristic solution to help get rid of plastics currently floating or submerged in global waters. It is timely and relevant solution," according to Monchito B. Ibrahim, Industry Development Committee Chairman of the Analytics Association of the Philippines and former undersecretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

Upper row Associate American Corner librarian Donna Lyn G. Labangon, Space Apps leader Dr. Paula S. Bontempi, former DICT Usec. Monchito B. Ibrahim, Animo Labs executive director Mr. Federico C. Gonzalez, DOST-PCIEERD deputy executive director Engr. Raul C. Sabularse, PLDT Enterprise Core Business Solutions vice president and head Joseph Ian G. Gendrano, lead organizer Michael Lance M. Domagas, and Animo Labs program manager Junnell E. Guia. Lower row Dominic Vincent D. Ligot, Frances Claire Tayco, Mark Toledo, and Jansen Dumaliang Lopez of Aedes project.

With 271,480 dengue cases resulting in 1,107 deaths as reported from January 1 to August 31, 2019 by the World Health Organization, the Aedes Project team composed of Dominic Vincent D. Ligot, Mark Toledo, Frances Claire Tayco, and Jansen Dumaliang Lopez developed a forecasting model of dengue cases using climate and digital data and pinpointing possible hotspots from satellite data. Correlating information from Sentinel-2 Copernicus and Landsat 8 satellites, DOST-PAGASA for climate, and trends from search engines, potential dengue hotspots will be displayed in a web interface. Indices like Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) are used in identifying areas with green vegetation while Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) to identify areas with water. Combining these indices reveal potential areas of stagnant water capable of being breeding grounds of mosquitoes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzpI775XoY0



"It benefits the community especially those countries suffering from malaria and dengue, just like the Philippines. I think it has a global impact. This is the new science to know the potential areas where dengue might occur. It is a good app," said Engr. Raul C. Sabularse, deputy executive director of DOST-PCIEERD.


"It is very relevant to the Philippines and other countries which usually having problems with dengue. The team was able to show that it's not really difficult to have all the data you need and integrate all of them and make them accessible to everyone for them to be able to use it. It's a working model. It is something can actually be made usable in a short span of six months," Mr. Ibrahim said.

Biological oceanographer Dr. Paula S. Bontempi, acting deputy director of the Earth Science Mission, NASA's Science Mission Directorate and the current leader of the Space Apps global organizing team.

Space Apps leader Dr. Paula S. Bontempi, the acting deputy director of the Earth Science Mission, NASA's Science Mission Directorate was impressed of these solutions presented in Manila, "The top two are really good. There were definitely a few projects right behind them. There is a lot of good talent out there. It was nice to see."


Rex Lor from United Nations Development Programme in the Philippines commended the use of the Sustainable Development Goals on Good Health and Well-Being, and Life Below Water of the winning solutions showcasing the "pivotal role of cutting-edge digital technologies in the creation of strategies for sustainable development in the face of evolving development issues."


Both champions will join teams around the world to be evaluated by NASA to approximately select the top 30 projects as global finalists in early December, and the top six winners will be announced in January 2020. Winners shall be invited to visit the NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Florida in 2020.


Last year, team iNON used a citizen science platform by NASA to develop an application seeking to communicate scientific data to fishermen even without Internet connection, which led them to victory as the first Pinoy global winner. Their project called ISDApp is currently being incubated by Animo Labs.

Pinoy hackers going deep into addressing real-world problems on Earth and space.

University president Br. Raymundo B. Suplido FSC hopes that NASA Space Apps would "encourage our young Filipino researchers and scientists to create ideas and startups based on space science and technology, and pave the way for the promotion and awareness of the programs of our own Philippine space agency."


Vice President Leni Robredo recognized Space Apps as a platform "where some of our country's brightest minds can collaborate in finding and creating solutions to our most pressing problems, not just in space, but more importantly here on Earth."


"Space Apps is a community of scientists and engineers, artists and hackers coming together to address key issues here on Earth. At the heart of Space Apps are data that come to us from spacecraft flying around Earth and are looking at our world," as explained by Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science.


#SpaceApps #SpaceAppsPH