As we reported earlier, in “Mammoth,” Marife plays Gloria, a mother of two sons who leaves the Philippines to work as the nanny of the daughter (Sophie Nyweide) of a successful New York couple, played by Gael and Michelle. When Gael’s businessman character goes to Thailand, he realizes that he wants to change his life. This development sets off a dramatic chain of events that impact the characters of Marife, Michelle and Sophie.

Marife informed us that she filmed her scenes in New York, Sweden and the Philippines, specifically in Subic and Bataan. The trailer of the film prominently features Marife, including an emotional scene where she speaks in Tagalog to her two sons on the phone. The two sons are also shown on a beach in the Philippines, as shot by Lukas’ cinematographer, Marcel Zyskind, whose credits include Angelina Jolie’s “A Mighty Heart.”

Marife shared that she had to dub a few of her lines in a dubbing studio in Makati. She also told us via e-mail that in anticipation of the film’s release early next year, she is doing phone interviews with the Swedish press, as arranged by Memfis Film, one of the production companies involved in the making of “Mammoth.”

The Filipina actress added that Lukas is still making final editing work on “Mammoth.” Lukas is the highly praised filmmaker of films like “Lilja 4-ever,” “Show Me Love” and “Together.” Lukas, who made the final decision to pick Marife for the part, was hailed by his esteemed compatriot, the late Ingmar Bergman, as a “young master.”

Marife said she enjoyed working with Michelle, whose credits include Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” and Gael, the Mexican thespian who’s enjoying a sterling international career with such films as “Babel,” “The Motorcycle Diaries” and “Amores Perros.”

Here’s the link to the trailer.

WE’RE glad to hear from The Jazz Society of the Philippines, USA that a Filipino-American, Jon Irabagon, has just won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition.

Jon, said to be the first Filipino to win this competition that is ranked no. 1 in the world in terms of prestige, won a $20,000 scholarship and a record contract with Concord Music Group, one of the leading jazz labels in the US.

Raised in Chicago, Jon has been playing the saxophone since he was eight years old. He cinched his historic victory at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. We can’t wait to watch the new FilAm pride — he will perform at the 4th Annual Filipino-American Jazz Festival at the Catalina Bar & Grill, also in Hollywood, on December 27.

Watch Alec Mapa with Ruben & Janet Nepales in Entertainment Videos |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Alec came on time to the event which raised funds for the laudable Filipino American Library (FAL), which is located in the historic Filipinotown of LA. The actor, who is committed to various charities and foundations, was going to be awarded FAL’s Role Model Award.

Well, many hours and several glasses of wine later, and after terrific performances by Becca Godinez, Mon David, Charmaine Clamor, Three of a Kind, Tateng Katindig, Michael and Rene Paulo, Alec finally got to go onstage and accept his award. Alec’s hair has gone askew and despite having the tough task of delivering an acceptance speech after those excellent musical numbers, he still managed to entertain the crowd and keep the momentum. Toward the end, he invoked his favorite anecdote about how his mother, now deceased, motivated him when he was just starting in show business and was not making headway. “What’s stopping you?” Alec’s mother asked him. That made him pause. Nothing has stopped Alec since then.

As I pumped gas into our car, a young white woman approached me and asked if I just came from the concert. When I said yes, the woman said she watched the show too. Then she peppered me with questions, the gist of which boiled to one thing: she wondered if the many Filipinos who trooped to the Greek Theatre that Sunday evening knew the songs of Journey.

Although the lady said she knew that Neal Schon first saw Arnel when the former came across a video clip of Arnel singing a Journey hit on YouTube (back when he was doing Journey tribute songs in the Philippines), she appeared baffled that people in the Philippines know Journey. I told her that I was familiar with those Journey anthems in the 1980s. She asked me if I was born in the US or in the Philippines. I said I was born and raised in the Philippines and I was back home when I first heard those Journey tunes.

(Editor’s note: Here’s one of the video clips on YouTube that perhaps got Journey’s attention.)

I gave her the benefit of the doubt — the woman appeared to be simply ignorant about the Philippines. Having come from the concert where she must have been struck by the presence of so many Filipinos, she was now very curious about Filipinos and the Philippines. She said, “It was nice to meet you” and walked back to her friend.

When I finished pumping gas, I slid back into the car and recounted the somewhat strange encounter to my wife. The incident reflected the fact that Journey’s decision to hire a Filipino guy as its frontman has sparked all sorts of discussions among the group’s fans, especially on the blogosphere. Some expressed surprise at the choice, with some comments tinged with racist undertones. But most Journey followers, including the thousands who filled arenas in North and South America and Europe to watch the band’s 2008 road tour concerts, are ecstatic about Arnel. The group’s new CD, “Revelation,” has become one of Journey’s bestselling albums.

Driving back on the road, I chuckled at the thought that yes, many of our kababayans wouldn’t have bothered to make the trek to the Greek Theatre if Arnel was not in the band. But the fellow Pinoys who showed up in throngs to watch Arnel weren’t complete ignoramuses about Journey’s songs either. If only the young lady knew — we Filipinos are a sentimental lot who know all the lyrics of soft rock ballads like Journey’s “Open Arms” and “Faithfully.” We can all sing like Arnel Pineda, too. Well, that part is true only in our karaoke-wired imagination.

Read my full account of how LA welcomed Arnel as Journey’s lead vocalist in my column on Philippine Daily Inquirer (”Only In Hollywood: Arnel, Journey welcomed with ‘Open Arms’ “). And if there are still doubters out there, here’s an excerpt of Phil Gallo’s review of the concert in Variety:

“Hits and songs that sound like hits dominate Journey’s 90-minute set in one of the summer’s most consistently successful package tours, a sign that the latest edition of Journey has assimilated new singer Arnel Pineda and returned to a strict focus on their hitmaking days of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Material from their Wal-Mart-only release ‘Revelation’ stands up well alongside the classics; album is tailor-made to attract fans of the Steve Perry era of the band.

At the second of two sold-out shows at the Greek, Pineda proved he has crossed the line from Perry Karaoke master to respectable lead singer. That the new album taps into the energy and blueprint of Journey’s hitmaking era makes for a clear formula for Pineda to follow and simultaneously gives a band an opportunity to maintain a focus in a career-spanning set.”

We have become almost blasé to hear that Dante has won in yet another film fest. The prolific filmmaker’s latest triumph is at the 6th Vladivostok International Film Festival of Asian Pacific Countries where he won the Best Director award while his lead, Gina Pareño, earned the Best Actress honors for “Serbis.” Dante’s victories are raising awareness in the international film community of the Philippines’ vibrant indie movie scene.

(Photo: One more addition to his growing trophy collection: a triumphant Brillante “Dante” Mendoza (center) in Vladivostok, Russia.)

Sounding humble in our interview via e-mail, Marife peppered every sentence with “po” — we felt like we were being addressed by Nora Aunor. For brevity’s sake, we deleted all the “pos” in Marife’s answers in our interview which appears in our column. Read her account of how she landed the role — it’s a fascinating story.

Last year, Diaz won the Special Mention in the Orizzonti for his documentary “Encantos.”Melancholia,” according to Diaz, is an 8 plus hour meditation on love, life and suffering. It was shot in various locations around the Philippine countryside.

(Photo: “Jay” delegation on the Lido [from left]: distributor Ferdy Lapuz, actor-cinematographer Carlo Mendoza, lead actor Baron Geisler and writer-director-producer Francis Xavier E. Pasion)

Financial Times came out with the first review of director Francis Xavier E. Pasion’s “Jay” and it is very encouraging. The London paper’s critic, Nigel Andrews, cited Francis’ directorial debut which stars Baron Geisler, Coco Martin and Flor Salanga, as one of the standouts so far in the festival on the Lido.

Andrews wrote, “On the Venice fringe there have been two films to cheer: an Italian reconstruction and a Philippine satire. Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1963 La Rabbia (‘Rage’) was a potion of screen rhetoric, never before seen in the undiluted form the director intended…Giuseppe Bertolucci (Bernardo’s brother) has re-assembled the old material, added some never seen, and puts before Italy and the world Pasolini’s true original rage, a scintillating montage of 20th-century news footage – from Mussolini to Marilyn Monroe – unified and signposted by a genius’s vision.

“Perfidious media managers; treachery in the name of truth. They are everywhere today, not least in the lies of ‘reality TV.’ Francis Xavier Pasion’s Jay, from the Philippines, is an acutely funny tale of intrusive telly reporters, bearing down on a family bereaved by a gay son’s murder to make their grief part of a nation’s infotainment. They start by poking a lens at the family’s faces as they learn the news; they end by getting them to act, or re-enact, every emotional convulsion that needs a second, third or umpteenth take. The remuneration? The reporters will help find the son’s killer. By the time they do, even the murderer, we know, will be signing release forms and hungrily securing his 15 minutes of fame.”

Congratulations to the “Jay” delegation now in Venice! Next, Lav Diaz unveils his “Melancholia” on Saturday. I have high hopes for Lav’s second consecutive Orizzonti (Horizons) entry too.

(Photo: RP pride on the red carpet in the Venice Film Festival where “Jay” opened Orizzonti, a competition sidebar: actor-cinematographer Carlo Mendoza, lead actor Baron Geisler, Venice Film Festival director Marco Mueller, selection committee member Paolo Bertolin, writer-director-producer Francis Xavier E. Pasion and distributor Ferdy Lapuz).

I just heard via e-mail from director Francis Xavier E. Pasion, whose Cinemalaya winning entry, “Jay,” just opened the Orizzonti (Horizons) sidebar of the ongoing Venice Film Festival.

While Francis sounded ecstatic about the reception of “Jay” at the PalaLido and PalaBiennale in the festival on the Lido, he also expressed his wish that the Philippine government and the private sector would support more enthusiastically the fledging indie film industry which has been reaping honors for the country.

The director of the film which stars Baron Geisler, Coco Martin and my long-time friend Flor Salanga wrote in his email to me, “I am extremely happy for Philippine cinema’s participation in the Venice International Film Festival, but at the same time, I feel that there is more to be done to be more competitive in the world stage. I envy some of the films that are given full support by the government and private sectors in their respective countries.”

He clarified, “We are grateful for the FDCP (Film Development Council of the Philippines) for their support for our film, but we hope that the government would give more funding to the agency because more films are getting invitations from festivals abroad, and there is a resurgence of independent films that need funding from the agency.”

Lav Diaz, whose “Melancholia” closes the Orizzonti on Saturday, September 6, had earlier expressed similar sentiments but in, let me say, colorful Tagalog terms.

The filmmaker who is going places with his first feature film added, “FDCP and the NCCA (National Commission for Culture and the Arts) are the two government institutions that are directly involved with the funding of independent films.”

He shared, “The international audience in Venice could hardly believe that we can produce a good film in 10 days with a budget of only 1.5 million pesos (25,000 euros).

Speaking about the subject matter of “Jay,” Francis said, “Some of the Italian documentary film directors and media practitioners said that they can relate with the strong message of media manipulation and the prevalence of infotainment in Italy.”

Both he and Francis have a chance of shouting “Mabuhay ang pelikulang Pilipino!” from the podium come awards night on Sunday, September 7.