CCP’s Calendar of Performing Arts Festivals & Arthouse Cinema

CCP Festivals in the Performing Arts 

Having had one full year to adjust to the realities of the pandemic, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) continues to forge forward in the creation of new works, in the support of artists and in the promotion of Filipino art and culture.  

In May 2021, Indak Pilipinas, a dance festival which aims to showcase the best folkloric groups in the Philippines and abroad will be streamed in all of the CCP’s Social Media pages. Staged in the various venues of each folkloric group all over the Philippines, the customs of the nation are highlighted through traditional dance.  

Indak Pilipinas

It is followed by the country’s longest running playwrights’ festival, The Virgin Labfest, in June 2021. The CCP, in partnership with the Writer’s Bloc and Tanghalang Pilipino (CCP Resident Company for theatre), once again mounts a festival of untried, untested, unstaged works by Filipino playwrights. For the first time last year, the Labfest has had artists from as far away as Australia and New York, performing online alongside those in the Philippines. The launch of the online platform enabled our viewers to watch in the comfort of their own homes, paving the way for greater audience reach and interaction from almost every continent.   

Virgin Labfest

This time, instead of staging new works, the Labfest takes the works staged online during the height of the pandemic  in 2020 and brings them onstage in a fresh new format. They will be recorded and streamed on the CCP’s various social media outlets.  

Post performance interactions will be held and questions in the comments section of the social media pages will be answered.   

We might not all be in the theatre, but for both Indak Pilipinas and the Virgin Labfest, creation continues, our relationship with our audience strengthens and with the passion of all artists, both new and traditional works are presented with excellence.  

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On Climate, Labor and Pride: CCP Arthouse Cinema’s free virtual flix 

After kicking off the year with its Valentine and EDSA People Power special – Of Love and Revolutions, and Women in Cinema programmes in February and March, the CCP Arthouse Cinema online edition is poised to bring you another exciting film lineup this April to June. All films are available for streaming on CCP’s Vimeo Channel. 

April is for Patriots and Earth Warriors, a themed programme to commemorate Heroes’ Day and honor environmentalists and their fight against the exploitation of foreign corporations to the environment and disregard to human lives. In the lineup are films such as the 2020 Gawad Alternatibo Documentary category winner DAGAMI DAYTOY (THIS IS OUR LAND) by Noni Abao; 24K by Ana Agabin, a Cinemalaya 2009 film that won Best in Cinematography and a film from EuroPelikula, PETIT PAYSAN (BLOODY MILK) by Hubert Charuel, a Cannes 2017 Golden Camera Nominee.  

For the Labour month of May, CCP Arthouse will screen feature films such as Cinemalaya 2007 Special Jury Prize awardee ENDO by Jade Castro. It is a film starred by Ina Feleo and Jason Abalos, a love story entangled in the social complications of ‘contractualisation,’ a labour practice that perpetuates the precarity that defines the lives ordinary Filipinos. Also featured are Gawad Alternatibo short film winners, and another Europelikula film, the Latvian National Film Festival Best Film winner, OLEG by Juris Kursietis (2019). This lineup is meant to acknowledge the significance of the labour force in our society as we tell stories of their acts of everyday heroism despite dire working conditions and below-minimum wage. 

As we commemorate the country’s 123rd Independence this June, CCP Arthouse Cinema’s PRIDE AND INDEPENDENCE programme will feature highlight episodes of NOLI ME TANGERE, a CCP produced TV-series based on Rizal’s novel, and Gawad Alternatibo films that tackle gender and pride, such as, IS YOUR GENDER AN ISSUE by Ellen Ongkeko, LISYUN QNG GEOGRAFIA by Petersen Vargas and PALUGID by Paulo Villaluna. Also included in this month’s lineup is a EuroPelikula offering entitled, THE SILENCE OF OTHERS by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, and THE CONSTITUTION by Rajko Grlic.

Join the CCP Arthouse Cinema community as we celebrate each month with these special virtual screenings, all for FREE at the CCP Vimeo Channel. We look forward to having you in our virtual cinemas in the coming months!