Realizing "Mithiin"

One of the activities most of us probably had so much time for at the height of the lockdown was to go through folders and files and media in our computers, phones, etc. One day in May, I was doing just that, I was scrolling down one hard rive and found a folder named, Baguio Music Festival 2011. There were photos of meetings with performing artists at Luisa's (inutang na bandehado ng pansit at ilang tasa ng kape, paki-lista muna, Manang Nora), ocular inspections of the Baguio Botanical Gardens and other pre-production activities. 

For that first one, I envisioned a three-day festival - Tunog Baguio on the first day, classical and musical theater pieces on the second day, and Made in Baguio on the third day. With two forums in between.

I remember RL reminding me then - our grant is only P150,000.00. We'll make it happen. And it happened.

That afternoon, I thought, this would be a good project to revive, I thought. The last edition was staged in 2015, the fifth in the series. It would be nice to get the 6th out, in the new normal. I started to draft an outline.

In a few days the concept paper was ready - I approach the regional office of the tourism department. The pitch was simple - we'll feature Baguio's open spaces and the idea is to educate audiences on the cultural, historical and social relevance of these spaces to the people of Baguio in the hope that with that, tourists in the future would be more caring and respectful when they visit these spaces. It was thumbed down. Ahhh, this was the part I didn't look forward to when producing independently, the thumbs downs.

Early in June, a colleague shared information about Nayong Pilipino Foundation's project called "Rhizomatic Interventions: A Call for Digital Content." The project allotted a modest grant for approved projects. She asked me to help share the information with Baguio artists who may need a little bit of help. I shared it on the Ibagiw page and sent the info directly to some artists who may be interested. But they day before the deadline for submission of proposals, the colleague informed me that nobody from Baguio submitted a proposal yet.

I tweaked the original concept paper and turned that into a proposal and sent it at the last minute to Nayong Pilipino. I forgot about it until a week or so later when received an email from the foundation that my proposal has been shortlisted. They asked for more details - understandably since the proposal I sent was rushed and had only the essence of what I intended to do. Another couple of week and I was told that I was in n even shorter list now.

And then finally, the good news: it's been approved. But the grant wouldn't be enough to finance the whole project. But that is familiar territory, and like I said during the first Baguio Music Festival and in most of our independent undertakings, we'll make this happen. Despite be told that as of the moment I had no idea where I’m going to get the rest of the funding but that I would do what I can to ensure that every single participating artist would be compensated, except for one artist whose mobile signal was too erratic for us to have a decent conversation, everyone I originally thought should be in “Open Spaces VI - Mithiin,” agreed to be part of it. That was all I needed to really know that this project will definitely happen.

We had a lean staff - my wife, Rl, whose schedule of online classes prevented her from taking a more active part in the production process, was a supervising production manager; the hands-on day-to-day management of the project fell on daughter Gabriela, production manager, and son Aeneas, assistant director; then we brought in EJ Romawac to be production assistant slash cameraman slash performer as member of one of the featured bands, Baka-baka.

In the meantime, I started an online fund-sourcing campaign. Just public enough to reach people I personally know. As day one of the shooting neared, we got our first reply from a dear friend on the other side of the earth - enough to cover the honoraria of three to four artists. 30 to go. We went ahead with the first day of filming, advancing honoraria and transportation allowances in the meantime. 

By the time we ended filming, we had enough to provide every single participating artist with what we’ve termed pantawid. And when contributions continued to come in even after the premiere of the final video, we were just so happy to surprise everyone with notifications from their respective GCash or online bank accounts that some additional cash, albeit really humble amounts, have been deposited for them. And for the few artists who waived their honoraria, we made sure that we honored their participation in kind.

But I knew too, that for all of them, it’s not about that - every single one of them is an artist I’ve worked with in the past, some for projects that paid handsomely, other times for productions that had no funding at all but was for a very worthy cause whether advocating human rights or defending the environment or Baguio from crass commercialism and traditional politics.
So first and foremost, I wish to thank the artists of Mithiin for taking this journey with us.
And our sincerest gratitude to our supporters - your generous contributions weren’t only pantawid, it made the production possible which gave us and our audiences a glimmer of hope in these dark times:

Mr. Reynaldo C. Bautista, Sr.

Ivee Bongosia

Rylyn Johann Danganan

Gina Evangelista

Paolo Mercado

Dana Cosio-Mercado

Raymond Red

Joel Santiago

Roy Hapa Sy

Marie Ventura

Ms. Gladys Vergara and the Baguio Tourism Council 

Mylen Yaranon

And to the rest of our contributors who wished to remain anonymous, maraming salamat sa inyong tulong! Dahil sa inyo, naisakatuparan namin ang aming Mithiin.