“SQUATTERPUNK LIVE! at the 1st JESCOM MEDIA
CONVENTION, ATENEO"

A film concert featuring KHAVN’s “Squatterpunk”
& the live music of THE BROCKAS featuring BOBBY
BALINGIT of The Wuds

Date: August 25, Saturday, 6pm

Event: "Non-Profit Sharing" The 1st JesCom Media
Convention (Using Media for Non-Profit Causes)

Venue: The Garage, Jesuit Communications (JesCom),
Seminary Drive corner Arrupe Road, inside Ateneo De
Manila University, Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights,
Quezon City, Metro Manila

For inquiries and reservations, contact Ken Tan: phone
4265971 or email ktan@admu.edu.ph.

************

SQUATTERPUNK
This is not a film by Khavn

FESTIVALS:
Grand Jury Prize, Cinemanila International Film
Festival
Opening Film, Sonatrope Film Festival, Hong Kong
Rotterdam International Film Festival, The Netherlands
Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore
IndieLisboa International Film Festival, Portugal
Brisbane International Film Festival, Australia
Euganea Movie Movement Film Festival, Italy
Urban Nomad Film Festival, Taiwan
Hamburg Documentary Film Festival, Germany
Viennale International Film Festival, Austria

"Filipino filmmaker Khavn goes against the politically
correct, pre-conceived notions of what it means to
live in a garbage strewn slum with this vibrant,
punk-infused look at youth living and playing in
squalor. For many American television viewers, images
of crying children suffering from malnutrition and
playing in garbage are often accompanied by a
telephone number asking for donations. Khavn is
determined to break that cliche by painting a
compelling, monochromatic portrait of an impoverished
slum district near Manila. With black & white images
set to the anarchic punk, this bleak but remarkable
vision presents a world viewers only thought they knew
in a way they could have never imagined." (Jason
Buchanan, All Movie Guide, The New York Times)

"Hyper-productive star of the new Philippine digital
cinema Khavn and his band The Brockas come to Arc
Canberra for a live performance (or sonic reaction?)
to his new film, winner of the Jury Prize at
Cinemanila Film Festival. A punk cinema city symphony,
a 21st century Los Olvidados, SQUATTERPUNK charts the
lives of the ‘Mohawk’ kids of Manila’s Isla Puting
Bato slum district, captivated by their tearaway
energy, despairing at their condition." (Quentin
Turnour, National Film & Sound Archive, Australia)

"It’s a rollercoaster ride down the literal rectum of
the metropolis. Its only punctuations are title cards
with oft-used proverbs; then it swings back into a
hyperactive video collage of scenes from the slums.
It’s oddly beautiful. You find poetry in these
children’s escapes from their poverty --- a used can
of soda is kicked endlessly through the puddle-riddled
footpaths of the slums before being booted to a
makeshift goal (complete with a goalie and a
scorekeeper); the floor of the house bears the wear
and tear of the dozen kids breakdancing; the dirty
waters also serve as communal pool to the kids.
"Khavn’s frenzied pace is the film’s incongruent
heartbeat. It is the metaphorical punk in the film’s
title. Accompanying the frenetic rhythm of the video
collage is the live music played by a band called The
Brockas (aptly named, this band includes filmmakers
Khavn, Roxlee, John Torres, and Lav Diaz).
SQUATTERPUNK is a concert film --- a never ending,
energetic road to places we dare not tread. "This is
not a film by Khavn," it's an experience.
"There are little stories in the rapid succession of
moving black and white images. We get to witness how
an old lady selling popsicles become the savior to the
maddening summer heat; this is segued by a dive to the
detritus-filled water (you’re glad Khavn shot the film
in black and white; turns the garbage and feces
components of the dead body of water into verses of a
poem rather than what they really are).
"Most amazing is the story that wraps up the film. A
family treads the streets of Manila at night, the few
pesos they have they spend on their baby’s milk which
they buy from a convenience store. They then forage
for food in a stash of garbage in the street corner;
Styrofoam boxes still contain scraps of food (mostly
half-eaten fried chicken). The twist of the story is
that instead of munching the remainders of what was
once a worthy meal, they spend time to cook their
find. Even in the face of extreme poverty, they find
means to enjoy a well-earned dinner.
"The thesis of SQUATTERPUNK is exactly that: that in
the midst of the squalor they were born in, these
impoverished Filipinos still find a will to live above
the preconceived notions of suffering that accompany
their state of life. That is their rebellion; their
statement in life --- something very similar to
missons the filmmaker-musicians strumming their
guitars, and playing music alongside the frenetic
images projected have." (Oggs Cruz, Movie Thoughts)

"The best social realist documentary in the
Philippines, SQUATTERPUNK is a daring and adventurous
film shot in the kind of slum neighbourhood where
police protection is rare. The film, energetic and
funny in a place that is supposed to be depressing,
does not exactly fit into the social awareness
approach of a direct cinema documentary. The score of
the film is loud if not deafening. And not in vogue.
Director Khavn, the enfant terrible of Filipino
cinema, brings us back to the ‘no future’ eighties of
authentic anarchic punk. But it is consistent in its
style of black-and-white images and its rhythmic
montage that is clearly driven by the music-based
sound track. Compared to the ironic collage way of
working in most of Khavn’s other films, this one is
crystal clear if not neat. Well, only in comparison
with his other sometimes exuberant experiments. By any
other standard, it is a wild and pulsating film.
SQUATTERPUNK shows something of life in the slums in a
quite special way. It shows how poor, forgotten and
ignored children can have a good time. Playing and
swimming in rotting garbage can apparently be fun. So
it is not the cliché image of tears in a child’s eyes
that makes us aware of this disgraceful situation but
the vitality and pleasure of the protagonists. In
addition, maybe even stronger than pity, this pleasure
enforces the inevitable message: no future." (Gertjan
Zuilhof, Rotterdam International Film Festival, The
Netherlands)

"'Squatter' is the N-word of the Phippines, suggesting
the poorest of its Third World inhabitants only one
rung up from living in Manila’s garbage citadel of
Tondo. Hardly a cause for Squatter Pride, but Filmless
Films’ Khavn, the bleached enfant terrible of the new
Philippines digital scene, may convince you otherwise.
Filmed in just one day, SQUATTERPUNK follows an eight
year old Slum King, a cocky would-be gangster with a
Travis Bickle haircut, and his ratbag minions through
one of the thousands of shanty towns that spring up
between the cracks in the Manila pavements. The manic
collage of stunning hand-held black and white images
capture kids being kids as they frolick amidst the
cardboard and corrugated walls of home-sweet-home and
the surrounding debris, human and otherwise.
Like watching infants at play at a car crash, it’s a
mesmerizing, almost seamless collision of social
realism and visual poetry. It’s a rush to the heart,
too, fuelled by the mostly improvised punk score by
Khavn’s outfit The Brockas. Performed live in Brisbane
by Khavn and his motley crew of local misfits, the
relentless clang-bang drowns the need for dialogue or
background noise, leaving a stark impression without
comment and, more significantly, without judgement.
A vivid and jarring collection of postcards of
innocence at the brink of a short and possibly
non-existent adolescence, of simple pleasures amidst
appalling squalor, of human junk that society ignores
in a country the rest of the world prefers to forget."
(Andrew Leavold, Brisbane International Film Festival,
Australia)

"I vogue on the juxtapose. Punk's a beer commercial
these days, a T-shirt, an ad campaign trope. The
“punk” in SQUATTERPUNK refers to before that. Refers
to nihilism, the punk dictum --- nothing from nothing,
life at less than zero, rebelling against whatever
you've got, no future. But the “squatter” in
SQUATTERPUNK refers to the scabby, depleted ,
claustrophobic and overfamiliar subculture living off
the liposucked fat of the land.The kids swimming in
black water , the scavenger family making supper from
detritus, the festering sores. Infiltrated and staked
out with an unflinching eye, this is social realism
without arrogance or agenda , but the immediacy of
Bobby Balingit's incoherent punk rock bristle feeds
the oddly upbeat parallels and subtexts --- punk was
also autonomy, shock value, will to power --- turning
outrage into a kind of catharsis." (Dodo Dayao,
Piling-Piling Pelikula)

"Tweaking the poverty documentaries omnipresent in
festival circles, SQUATTERPUNK turns its camera on a
group of children living in a squalid Manila slum.
Unlike most poverty documentaries, the film is less
concerned (or not concerned at all, actually) with
making any points about the hopelessness of their
condition, but instead follows the kids as they play
and walk around like little tough guys, complete with
Mohawks and a fuck-you attitude." (Jason Sanders,
Filmmaker Magazine / Cinemascope Magazine, USA/Canada)

"SQUATTERPUNK wants it viewers to be prepared for a
feature-length music video quite unlike anything MTV
is likely to broadcast. Shot in black-and-white to
relentless punk rock energy, its "stars" are squatter
kids living off the waste of Manila. Diving into dark
waters teeming with refuse and scavenging for food,
the nameless next generation still make time to shave
their heads Mohawk style and bang madly on makeshift
drums or strum beaten up guitars." (Philip Cheah,
Singapore International Film Festival)

"A rollicking ride into the depths of poverty-inspired
despair, with that distinctly Philippine sense of
hope, rising above the regular smell of garbage,
swinging and slamming with joyous riot music. This is
Khavn returning to the bare, essential, and simply
punk." (Joel Toledo, Bridport Prize Winner for Poetry)

"Despite the crude, violent, exploitative connotations
of its title, SQUATTERPUNK casts a tenderly poetic eye
at the squalor of Philippine society." (Lourd De
Veyra,
Palanca Awardee for Essay & Teleplay)

"Pinoy Punk Rock is the music that reflects the lively
and chaotic world of the urban poor in an independent
masterpiece titled SQUATTERPUNK by the internationally
award-winning director Khavn." (Jude Bautista, Manila
Times)

CREDITS:
Directed, Written, & Produced by Khavn
Cinematography by Albert Banzon
Edited by Lawrence S. Ang
Recorded Music by Bobby Balingit, Delakrus, The
Brockas
Stills by Buccino De Ocampo
Assistant Direction by Rayg Generoso
Starring Hapon & the Isla Puting Bato Community
Running Time: 80 minutes

************

THE FIRST JESCOM MEDIA CONVENTION
"NON-PROFOIT SHARING"
Using MEDIA for Non-Profit Causes

This August, Jesuit Communications, Inc. will be
holding its first media convention at its headquarters
within the Ateneo de Manila University campus.
Entitled Non-Profit Sharing, this conference aims to
help individuals and organizations that are committed
to non-profit causes by connecting them with socially
oriented media practitioners. During this 4-Saturday
seminar, participants will learn how to effectively
communicate their causes through popular and new forms
of media. The seminar will have three components

(1) The Effective Use of Media for Non-Profit
Causes Seminar, to be held every Saturday with
sessions in the morning (9 AM to 12 PM) and in the
afternoon (1 PM to 4PM) from August 4 to 25, 2007 at
the The Garage, Jesuit Communications, Inc., Ateneo de
Manila University;

Confirmed speakers include Sujata Mukhi of Venture for
Fundraising, Nono Alfonso SJ of DZMM’s Usapang
Kapatid, Rina Jimenez David of Abanse! Pinay, Gang
Badoy of RockEd, Nick Deocampo and Boots Anson Roa of
Mowelfund Film Institute, Lourd de Veyra of
Radioactive Sago Project, Sr. Pilar Verzosa of Pondo
ng Pinoy, Girlie Garcia of Kythe, Isa Lorenzo of
Silverlens, renowned filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik, Andrian
Lee of AsiaPay Philippines, Ruby Cristobal of DZMM’s
Bago Yan Ah!, Manuel L. Quezon III of The Daily Dose
(www.quezon.ph), Gary Granada, Prof. William Yu CISSP
of Ateneo de Manila, Abe Olandres of Yugatech.com,
Weng Paraan of National Union for Journalists of the
Philippines, Ditsi Carolino, Ed Santaola of ISLA,
Gerry de Asis of ABS-CBN Foundation, and Ruben Canlas,
Jr. of www.digitalsolutions.com.

(2) The launch of Khavn's SQUATTERPUNK with live
music by The Brockas (a film concert) to coincide
with--

(3) Non-Profit Sharing Networking Night on August
25, 2007 from 6:00 to 9:00 P.M., featuring a photo
exhibit entitled “Kamusta Na? Ayos Pa Ba? – a glimpse
of our present lives in print” by Jes Aznar, Raffy
Lerma, Bahaghari (Richard de Guzman), Gil Nartea,
Derek Soriano, Jake Verzosa, VJ Villafranca, Sonny
Yabao, Rem Zamora and more. Performances by Gary
Granada and Noel Cabangon.

We would like to invite your organization to
participate in this event. Our speakers are leaders in
their respective vocations and have spared their time
to share with us their vast experience in media for a
cause. With your participation, we will be able bring
together a crowd that is both hungry for skills and
hungry for change.

For further details, please see the attached brochure.
For inquiries and reservations, please contact me,
Ken Tan, at telephone no. 4265971 or email
ktan@admu.edu.ph.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Ken G. Tan
Training Coordinator
The Garage

The Garage, Jesuit Communications Creative
Technologies Center
Seminary Drive corner Arrupe Road, Ateneo de Manila
University
Katipunan Ave., Loyola Heights
Quezon City 1108, Philippines

t. (632)4265971 loc. 221
m. +639177925823
f. (632) 4265970
e. ktan@admu.edu.ph , garagejct@yahoo.com

www.kamiasroad.com/khavn

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