Moonstruck

Something struck me last night when everything seemed perfectly peaceful.

The moon was half smiling and the canopy of acacia leaves were hanging still under her stark steady gaze. My legs were on a steady stride and my breath catching up my pace on the half dim elliptical asphalt road.

Footsteps of students in formal attire and backpacks punctuated the choral voices rehearsing to reach the perfect note in the background. Bicycles passed by once in a while and it's halfway of March.

Most concrete benches along the path lie idle. The stop lights would flick to red, but it just did not meant to stop me and a dozen of others from jogging.

Then came the two; a young man and a lady. Their shadows spread on the ground, their smiles are as bright as the silver moon.

"I am already starting," he said behind his spectacles.

"And you should start as well," his hands extending from his heart towards her direction - pony-tail falling on her shoulders, in jeans and rugged backpack.

A feeling like those in movie dates on a Saturday night of yesteryears, the wind suddenly blew across the field and my cheeks felt cold.

The moon got its way to suspend things like those in a hazy dream.

Pumikit. Tumingala. Mag-antanda... May himala.

Start:	Dec 16, '08 7:00p
Location:	Ishmael Bernal Gallery, U.P. Diliman

"Sa Likod ng Himala"

Hinugot mula sa UP Film Institute Archives.

Retro screening of the movie-in the-making documentary feature on HIMALA in honor of the big win for the landmark film by National Artist Ishmael Bernal starring superstar Nora Aunor as CNN Online Poll’s Best Asia-Pacific Film of All Time on the occasion of the 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Four days late

You could see the glow of the sun on my face as I tug along my little camera to UP Diliman with the campus' sunflowers on my mind.

But poor kid, not a single head of that bright flower was around. The guard told me they were uprooted some four days earlier. "Magugulang na kasi".

They're all gone. But there's always next year. I swiped my sweaty brows as walked back to the inner campus. My shadow on the pavement must be laughing at me.

May 19, 2007