For this week’s instalment of CINETALK, our featured filmmaker is ANTOINETTE JADAONE. In her talk during the Kape’t Pelikula at UP School of Economics, Antoinette or Tonet (as most would like to address her) shares her journey as a filmmaker: from the time she was just an aspiring director at UP-CMC, to landing her first job in advertising and meeting and working with her idol, Bb. Joyce Bernal.

For those of you who do not know Tonet or have heard about her but are uncertain about her body of work, Tonet is the filmmaker behind the movies, “SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION FROM LILIA CUNTAPAY”, “THAT THING CALLED TADHANA”, “THE ACHY BREAKY HEARTS” (na hate na hate niya raw ang title at gusto niyang ipaalis sa IMDB), and just recently, the JaDine (James Reid-Nadine Lustre) starrer “NEVER NOT LOVE YOU”.

I guarantee you that this video will inspire you to chase your dreams away, no matter how wild you think they are. Listening to her lecture makes me wanna get up and start writing and filming the scenes I’ve created in my head! Hehe. Before she started her talk, Tonet confessed that she prepared a lecture that mainly focused on writing scripts but upon hearing Nonie Buencamino’s talk on acting (Nonie preceded her), she decided to modify it in order to motivate the young students in the room. And I’m glad she did because if there’s one great takeaway from what she had shared with us… it’s this: LAKAS NG LOOB.

Early on, she had already decided that she wanted to be a director so right after graduation, she searched high and low for a spot in the local film industry but she hadn’t secured on right away. Her first job was in advertising and boy did she despise it. But she persevered and she learned what she can in the ad industry, taking with her priceless experiences that she’d later on use in her filmmaking career.

Anyway, so much for the introduction. Just watch the video below and keep the fire burning and make more films! 😀