Aiza Seguerra, Liza Diño discuss with consulate officials possible collaboration

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Life partners Aiza Seguerra and Liza Diño. Photo: GMA Network

Life partners Aiza Seguerra and Liza Diño. Photo: GMA Network

Consul General Theresa Dizon-De Vega welcomed two Philippine officials — National Youth Commission (NYC) Chairperson Aiza Seguerra and Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) Chairperson Mary Liza Diño – when they paid her a visit on November 17 at the Philippine Consulate.

Both agencies are under the Office of the President.

During the meeting, the officials discussed existing and other possible platforms for promoting Filipino films to a wider international audience. Dizon-De Vega, a film enthusiast, briefed Diño on the various efforts undertaken by the consulate to promote Philippine film in New York, considered one of the major film capitals of the world.

She spoke about the Sinehan sa Summer film festival organized by the Consulate usually in August and offered to the community free of charge. The festival runs for several days with FilAm organizations sponsoring each nightly screening.

Dizon-De Vega also gave a short briefing on the annual film festivals in the U.S. Northeast where Filipino filmmakers can have opportunities to exhibit their works.

For her part, Diño shared the new film promotion and development programs of the FDCP as well as the agency’s plans to hold travelling film festivals overseas. The consulate expressed their “readiness” to support the program.

Diño said the FDCP is seeking to make Philippine cinema a vehicle to promote Filipino culture and articulate the Filipino identity, while trying to find ways to make films sustainable as an industry.

She reiterated the vision of her commission to see a “flourishing professional and united film industry that produces and promotes high quality films… viewed by a wider audience both locally and internationally.”

The ConGen likewise briefed NYC Chair Seguerra on its programs for second- and third-generation FilAms to reconnect with their Philippine roots through socio-civic work, social enterprises, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, among other platforms. She spoke about the Filipino-American Youth Leadership Program (FYLPRO), a program established by the Philippine Embassy where 10 delegates from diverse professional and personal backgrounds are selected and sent on an Immersion Program to the Philippines to meet with top government, business and civil society leaders.

Actress-singer Seguerra noted that the commission plans to work more closely with overseas migrant Filipino youth communities. She has said in Manila how she planned to use arts and culture to “engage the Filipino youth.” She also discussed plans to go around the country to “learn more about their problems” in the areas of drugs, teenage pregnancy and the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Consul Arman Talbo and Cultural-Community Officer Olivia Osias-Magpile joined the meeting with the visiting officials.

From left: Cultural Office Olivia Magpile, FDCP Chairperson Mary Liza Diño, Consul General Theresa Dizon-de Vega, NYC Chairperson Aiza Seguerra, and Consul Arman Talbo

From left: Cultural Officer Olivia Magpile, FDCP Chairperson Mary Liza Diño, Consul General Theresa Dizon-de Vega, NYC Chairperson Aiza Seguerra, and Consul Arman Talbo

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