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Menagerie Menagerie Feature

Rant and Rave: Mank

The moment audiences saw Citizen Kane’s groundbreaking snowglobe shot, the clever play with lighting, and the long pan back in 1941, its place as one of cinema’s greatest was cemented. It would go on to define many of the textbook filmmaking techniques we  see today.   The film’s praises were sung to 24-year-old newcomer director Orson…

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Rant and Rave: The Crown—Season 4

The Crown has been one of Netflix’s prized prestige shows, having consistently delivered awards season buzz and pop culture mileage for three years now. Treading the line between drama and history, the show has capitalized on the general public’s morbid fascination with the British royal family. The constant push-and-pull between royal fantasy and far-from-perfect reality…

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Menagerie Menagerie Feature

Macoy, undubbed: The human beyond the humor

”Sino ang kumain ng sisig sa Jollijeep?” cries Nigel in the iconic Devil Wears Prada scene. For those scratching their heads, no, this is not some deranged Tagalog dubbing in a late Sunday night local network line-up. This is one of the zingers comedian Macoy Dubs delivered in their early days of making dubbed content…

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Scary stories to tell in La Salle

Key of f-ed, Bea They had warned us never to touch the grand piano sitting backstage in the William Shaw Little Theatre. The place was dimly lit; my flashlight illuminating the dusty instrument.  The wooden floor creaks upon my every step. I take a deep breath. The afternoon bus rides I devoted to reading Philippine…

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Spectrum of experiences: Children with special needs face up to distance learning demands

The past few months have not been easy for anyone. The threat of COVID-19 has forced many to stay at home or distance themselves from others, upending the status quo. Many parents have had to make critical decisions to protect the well-being of their children—even if it means having to temporarily pull their children out…

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Writer’s Recap: Open house—Truer Stories III

“Ako si Lisa. Taga-Maynila at may tatlong anak. Nagpunta ako sa health center para magpaturo [ng] family planning. Sinabi ng mga tao roon na pinagbabawal raw ang pagtuturo ng family planning sa health centers. Kaya wala akong makuhanan ng contraceptives. Sa edad ng disinwebe ay nabuntis ako. Pangatlo ko na.”  (My name is Lisa. I…

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Menagerie Menagerie Feature

Another voice: Clement Corominas, citizen journalist

A lot can happen in two minutes. The first thing Clement Corominas noticed when he arrived at the campus of University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu was the number of police officers surrounding the school. It was June 5, and a rally was being held in protest of the yet-to-be-signed Anti-Terrorism Bill. Stepping out of…

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Out of the shadows: Campus journalism in times of silencing and dissent

It was a Saturday when Carmen “Menie” Reyes woke up to a world that had been silenced. The usual chatter of the radio had faded into the night, the television only emitting white noise. It was September 1972, when Martial Law was declared in the Philippines, and she was in her third year of high…

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A narrow lens: How trans facing creates caricatures

Transgender people have been featured onscreen for decades now. However, they have been reduced to stereotypes; treated as either a deplorable “other” in exploitation films that have marketed transsexuality as a titillating shame, such as in 1953’s Glen or Glenda, or as a surprise twist as in 1992’s The Crying Game. In fact, examples of…

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Startups and alternatives: Stop-gap responses to COVID-19 economic woes

For a travel agent like Maria Fe Cantillo-Rofule, trips abroad are a customary part of her work life. She has led numerous groups of vacationers around the world that, in a way, it has become a form of routine. However, last January 26, a trip to Hong Kong became anything but routine: popular tourist spots…