Have you ever won anything ever? I won a tumbler once in a company Christmas party raffle. I have won little things which I am still so happy to have because keywords: It’s free! But I don’t remember winning in any contest I joined intentionally. I usually join those contests that’ll let you win free concert or even just movie tickets. Yes, gano’n lang kababaw ang kaligayahan ko mga bes! Unfortunately, I'm not lucky with those kind of contests. 

One day, Iflix sent me a private message through Twitter verifying my email address because they have a special “surprise” for me. I didn’t join any contest, at least none that I know of. I didn’t expect anything from it, but of course I expected somethinga. I thought I was going to get a free one month subscription on iflix. Huuuu.. Sobrang saya ko na no’n. I waited for a few more days after their message on Twitter. I keep checking my mail but no, still nothing from them. And I remembered—the SPAM FOLDER! And there it is, the message I was not expecting at all.

I can’t believe my eyes so I had to double-check every single detail of the email. What if it was a scam? But they had their address there and they are not asking me to pay for anything. But I still refused to believe it as it was too good to be true until I was signing anything that says everything is mine indeed. 

I used to be one of those people who would count days until its weekend. I would pray and pray for strength to get me through Wednesday for I feel that once I pass the hump-day hurdle, Thursday and Friday will be just a breeze. More often than not, work hours goes by turtle-slow.  But surprise, surprise… I still count days until weekend! But not as often as I used to and I am not as cranky as I was before while doing it. Yes, cranky. Being irritable is one warning sign of stress at work. If  you find yourself feeling depressed and anxious, having sleep or stomach problems, losing interest in work (hoping that you were interested in it in the first place), getting tired easily or experiencing headaches, you need to relax and slow down a bit. Work may be stressing you a little too much.  After “adulting” 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for several years now, I have learned to enjoy my worklife. I also found several tricks to lessen the stress work brings me. And because sharing is caring, let me share you ways on how to deal with stressful worklife:

When I was but a toddler, my mother told me that I was a good kid. Although it is not advisable today, she told me that she would leave me in a room and I would just happily watch my cartoons on the television while munching on my favorite chocolate chip cookies. Good thing watching too much t.v. did not kill most of my brain cells and while I was a (cough) cute chubby little girl, I did not succumb into obesity. And I still love watching television and I am still a couch potato. But now that I’m all grown up and I’ve added reading to list of my hobbies. Thanks to the gods of modern technology, I am able to read anywhere because of the ebook platform. When I’m bored with the same playlist I listen to almost every day while on commute going to and from school, and now work, I would just open an ebook file and read. That is how I saved myself from the boredom of Metro Manila traffic. Then came the day that I noticed my vision getting a little blurry. I knew reading while on a moving vehicle is bad for the eyes so I got back to just listening to music and lay low on reading. I love music but the routine can get pretty old sometimes.

Good thing I discovered iFlix! Their ads were everywhere—on Facebook and pretty much all the blog sites I’ve visited. They were offering a FREE 30 day full access. I tried it and boy it got me hooked! But for more information about iflix, just click here.

But love is not blind, though because here are the things I think iflix can change or fix:

Just a disclaimer, I am not at all paid to write about this and I'm not about to compare iflix to other apps. Iflix gave me something unexpected and great for my binge-watching needs though, but I will leave that post for next time because I'd like to keep you guessing *wink wink*. Now its just that when I love something, I just really get out of my limb to promote it. So good, quality selection of films, affordability and a customer service that goes out of the way for you? Check, check and check! Iflix just got themselves a loyal user in me. 

I have always loved watching movies but looking back, my love affair with Philippine Cinema really began when I attended my first Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival back in 2009. Cinemalaya was just 5 years old. I was only able to watch one film—Last Supper No. 3. That one film changed my views about movies and I've never missed a year of Cinemalaya since then. The Philippine film industry is almost monopolized by few film production companies. I don’t want to drop any names (but I know you’ll figure it out), but these film outfits make films that are very formulaic and rely heavily on musical score to drag emotions out of its viewers. Don’t get me wrong, scoring is a big deal when it comes to movies. Anyway back to my point. It was then that I started patronizing independent films or my beloved indie. It doesn’t conform, it’s not heavily populated with product placements and they’re almost always scored wonderfully.

I love art. All kinds—music, visual, performance art… everything. Can I just say that I’m not pointing that out to sound pa-cultured? LOL. I love art because it’s tied to history. Unfortunately, Philippine History is full of blood and betrayal that so many Filipinos tend to forgive and forget. Add that to our colonial mentality tendencies and we’re sure to take history for granted. That being said, I know the importance of preserving historical artifacts and that includes films.

I’m no film student but I’ve educated myself to know the importance of film in history which is why when I saw an announcement on Facebook that the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film (SOFIA) is looking for new members, I knew I had to join. I was really hesitant though, because I am not a film major so I sent their FB group a private message asking if they accept such members. I don’t even have a background on archiving. So I told them if they don’t, I still would like to extend my assistance in any way I can because I really believe in what they are trying to achieve. So I came to their general assembly. I was worried about so many things, first, I thought I was late and second, because I don’t know anyone. Seeing the fellow members, I got nervous because they all looked like they’re all from the film industry. I wanted to leave. Fortunately, I decided to stay.  The first part of the program is a film viewing. I read there was a special surprise guest and boy was I surprised! After filling out the registration form, I asked the CCP usherette if the event started yet. She said, “No, ma’am. Hinihintay pa daw po nila si (dramatic pause—oh yes she did!) Ms. Jaclyn Jose.” I said okay. That took a while to register. I think I did a double take when it finally did. THE Ms. Jaclyn Jose. THE first Southeast Asian to take home Cannes Best Actress award is gracing this event. And I’m going to see her. WOW. But this post is not (only) about her so I didn’t ask to take pictures with her. Haha. I was starstruck though, but I was there for SOFIA.

She came with her daughter Andi. I’ve met actors before pero iba yata talaga ang aura pag nanalo ka na ng Best Actress award. In Cannes. SOFIA did a film showing of her movie Itanong Mo Sa Buwan directed by Chito Roño. Her leading man here is the late Mark Gil, Andi Eigenmann’s father. It was a great film restored through the efforts of SOFIA. It has that Gone Girl vibe. Watching the film, you will notice remnants of a film negatives from the original movie. Itanong mo sa Buwan is one of the films lucky enough to be restored but how about those in black and whites? Filipino silent films? 

In an article written by a SOFIA member for Inquirer, Ramon Nocon states, “Philippine Cinema can lay claim to having produced some 8,000 or so films since its birth in 1919. But of that figure, the painful truth is that only 3,000 of those titles can be considered extant while the rest, regrettably, are irretrievably lost—never to be seen by current and future generations of moviegoers.”

What a waste. Wouldn’t you want your children or grandchildren to see the old grandeur of Philippine Cinema? Long story short, I am now official member of SOFIA. And if like me, you love movies and believe in the magic of film restoration and would like to learn more about it, you can join SOFIA too. You don't have to be a film major or mass communication graduate to join. In fact, I studied Pharmacy before. Some of the movies they helped restore include Mar S. Torres's Maalaala Mo Kaya (1954), Gerry de Leon's Noli Me Tangere (1961) and Lino Brocka's White Slavery (1977). For list of films they helped restore, you can check out their site here.

Photos from SOFIA Phils.

For everyone’s information, you can apply for regular, associate or institutional membership. Regular membership are for those people whose line of work is directly related to film. You can be an associate member if, like me, you’re a film enthusiast whose line of work isn’t related to film while institutional membership is as it says, for companies who wish to be part of SOFIA and is willing to help by giving funds to support film restoration. Annual fee is for Php 400 for regular and associate members and Php 1000 for institutional members (which covers up to 2 representatives from the company). 

SOFIA is a non-stock, non-profit and non-governmental association so help from volunteers are needed especially in times of fund-raisers and other events. They also do workshops and seminars educating people about the process of film restoration. If you wish to join, you can visit their Facebook account here or their website here.