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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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JERSEY CITY --- CLOSER TO HOME, an acclaimed film that was featured in over 26 international film festivals in 16 countries, will soon be released on DVD, according to a press statement.
The movie is about Dalisay who journeys from the Philippine countryside to New York City to marry an ex-merchant marine. Dean hopes to find love and a new family as his American family disintegrates around him, while Dalisay hopes to buy her sick sister’s cure, and ultimately, a future for her debt-ridden family.
To read reviews about this film, visit the official Web site, http://www.elibonfilms.com/
Some of the writers and critics have written about CLOSER TO HOME.
“Another Green Card Romance, but this time, the broader canvas– in both the Philippines and the US – gives the story a wider emotional range and a near epic feel,” Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune.
“…bound to make heads turn and touch a lot of Filipino hearts…”, Ricky Lo, The Philippine Star, said
“…a creative and rewarding juxtaposition of two cultures, two families and two interesting individuals…a new look at the Filipino-American relationship…”, said Nestor U. Torre, Philippine Daily Inquirer.
In addition, if you are interested in using our film as a fund- raising project, ask for a press kit and present your proposal.
For more information, contact Eva Alvarez at (908) 764-4543, or e-mail: etalvarez8@yahoo.com.
Or call Joseph Nobile/Steven Nobile at (908) 289 2960; (908) 289-6096 (fax); or e-mail: elibon3@optonline.net.
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NEW YORK — A Filipino graphic designer has put some pizzazz into New York City College of Technology’s (City Tech) recruitment efforts with his series of eye-catching posters advertising the College’s nine technology and design departments.
Darryl Menor, who originally came Cagayan province, makes City Tech poster campaigns he described as “strong, colorful images and headlines with a lot of attitude.”
Recently he judged a competition among City Tech advertising design and graphic arts students. After rigid brainstorming with professors, Menor came up with winners, including one for the Department of Entertainment Technology (ET) trumpeting:
“Broadway Wouldn’t Be Broadway Withous Us” — referring to the important backstage functions City Tech ET graduates perform in theatrical productions.
Hired by City Tech alumna Erika Schaefer-Hellstrom to judge the competition, Menor recalled his time when he once joined the same competition.
“That’s the first time I ever made money designing,” he said. “Sometimes you have to be resourceful, like using black and white images instead of more expensive color one, to going over budget.”
Menor is now working as a paid intern in the marketing department at Snug Harbor Cultural Center on Staten Island in a “challenging graphic design position where the nonprofit organization doesn’t have a Madison Avenue budget.”
Creative improvisation is one of Menor’s gifts. Arriving in the United States at 14 and speaking mostly Tagalog and Ilocano, he found his first year of high school very tough.
“It was a different environment. The students acted differently from what I was used to. I took ESL classes, but even so, for my first year I spoke only to other Filipinos,” he said.
Menor, now 25, is an active mentor for City Tech’s incoming freshmen and transfer students, helping them to adjust as he did.
His transition from high school also required creativity. Since his parents objected to his idea of joining the Army, he pursued his interest in the arts, “since I had always been good at it.”
His portfolio was just a sketch book of drawings but his obvious talent won him acceptance to Pratt Institute. That tuition being prohibitive, he chose NY City Tech in Brooklyn.
When he took the CUNY assessment tests, Menor said: “The math was easy, but English was still hard for me; I failed the reading and writing tests.” He then signed up for remedial classes while working full-time at Queens College, before enrolling in City Tech.
Menor is the quintessential child of modern media.
“I started sketching in second grade because I was influenced by reading comics, like Superman, Batman, X-Men — all those American things,” he said.
Self-taught until high school, when he took one semester of art, Menor is now fascinated by advertising, graphic design, magazine layouts, website design, computer drawing, photography, video editing, computer animation — and has a fondness for the classic element of typography.
Marcela Armoza, dean of enrollment management at City Tech, said that Menor’s posters are mostly used for recruitment.
“They are hanging in libraries, hospitals, high schools and other colleges. We bring them any time we go to college fairs or have our own open house events,” Armoza said.
As for Menor, he said: “Originally I didn’t want to use pictures. You don’t need to have pictures if you have a powerful headline to make it work...I would like to have my own company, a small design studio for small business clients. I’d like to do newspaper and magazine work, and maybe design movie posters.”
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