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A Mexican girl, a trans hacker, and a diverse cast of characters in Ramon Gil’s comic books
Ramon Gil’s latest middle grade graphic novel features a diverse cast of characters in terms of ethnicity, gender identity, and neurodiversity. Since 2014, Ramon Gil’s comic stories have featured people of color — often Asian — as lead characters. As an immigrant himself, he has a soft spot for the newcomer or the outsider. “I’ve […]
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‘Across the Spider-Verse:’ Extravagant animation
By Wendell Gaa “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is not only a great superhero film or a marvelous animated one, it is a cinematic masterpiece period. In my mind the greatest animated story yet about the iconic web-slinging hero to hit the big screen. The sequel to 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” the film continues the […]
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1st queer FilAm nominated for a major award at Tribeca Film Festival
Michaela Ternasky-Holland, director and producer of the immersive film “Reimagined Vol. II: Mahal,” is the first Queer Filipino American to be nominated for a major award at Tribeca Film Festival. The film features a full Filipino/Filipino American cast and a FilAm singer/score composer including names such as Loreto Delgado III, Daphne Nitsuga, Lee Sy and […]
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‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ is all heart, humor, excitement
By Wendell Gaa The “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy has officially concluded with its final installment “Vol. 3,” which in my view is the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s best film since “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” For the past couple of years, the Marvel movies and TV series of late have been struggling with both critical and […]
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Brian Poe Llamanzares: FPJ scion as a climate advocate
By Cristina DC Pastor “When my grandfather passed away I went back to the Philippines to attend his wake. I remember seeing his fans line up as far as the eye could see just to pay their respects. Thousands of Filipinos lined up for days to say good-bye. It was life changing for me to […]
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Sharon torch song used in absurd soda ad: ‘Balutin mo ako…’
By Joel David Once in a while popular culture bestows a piece that most of us can take to heart without having to burn our wallets or spend hours to track it down and watch it. The fact that film historian and curator Paolo Cherchi Usai could include “Surprise, Surprise,” a British Airways commercial, in […]
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‘John Wick:’ A beautiful choreography of mayhem
By Rene Pastor At the start of this Zen-like franchise, Keanu Reeves was called the Baba Yaga, the boogeyman feared in the underworld as a relentless killer who always gets it done no matter the odds. In Chapter 4 of a series that has drawn a cult-like following worldwide for the life and body count […]
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Singer Zeyoncé: Proud to be Black and Brown
Brown family legend has it that Zeyoncé didn’t have a name for two to three days when she was born on December 30,2001 in Milpitas, Calif. The family was big fans of Beyoncé Knowles who was then still with Destiny’s Child and not yet the celebrated icon that she is today. Her parents named their […]
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Bretman Rock writes of colorism and how the PHL doesn’t see it as a race problem
By Tricia J. Capistrano “If you’re a bottom, you’re gonna have to learn to douche correctly,” writes Filipino American influencer Bretman Rock in his recently released book, “You’re That Bitch and Other Cute Lessons About Being Unapologetically Yourself.’ For middle-aged Filipino Americans like me who are turned off by graphic sex and cursing, I ask […]