Author: Issa Adalia
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How a fictional character helped me cope with perfectionism and social anxiety
An android who couldn’t feel emotions taught me how to stop overthinking mine. It started at a university workshop on perfectionism several years ago, where I was taught to recognize the specific ways it’s been damaging me and that I needed to put a stop to certain mindsets and behaviors I had. Part of what…
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Attending an independent filmmaking workshop – Making food for the soul
I was recently listening to a podcast interview with Jonah Nolan (Christopher Nolan’s brother who’s also a director and writer) about his career. He talked about how he switched from an International Relations-adjacent major to English and his writing career in his 20s. At one point, he was holed up as a screenwriter on the…
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The Fears (and Miracles) of Filmmaking & Pursuing a Creative Life
I’ve been pondering about the push-and-pull of what it means to be a creative. Especially being someone from a third world country. Or maybe it touches everyone in general. Here’s my journey so far… I have been invited by God to live a life of creativity. But there’s always been something holding me back from…
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The Heartsong – a story
Do you ever get those times when you come across an old story you don’t even remember writing, but it seems as if someone else – better than you – wrote it, YET, all the evidence says that YOU yourself wrote it – and you can’t even believe it because it’s too wonderful? This is…
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Thoughts on “A Quiet Place: Day One” as an earthquake survivor, relief volunteer, TCK… (Spoilers)
“A Quiet Place: Day One” is the type of restrained, slower cinema and drama that I find lovely to watch, even if I’m not into thrillers/horror films, because of all its layers and beautiful themes. It reminded me of when I was an earthquake relief volunteer in Nepal, and resonated with me as a poet…
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“Can You Hear the Music?”: How Contemporary Movies Use Film Music as a Narrative Tool
Music in contemporary motion pictures remains a highlight for casual filmgoers – with many people recognizing themes from popular franchises like Marvel and Lord of the Rings, and others creating playlists of their favorite film music on Spotify or Youtube. However, considered on a more scholarly approach, film music often acts as a driver for…
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The labyrinth of life and death: Filipino tragedies and how I overcame insomnia during COVID
I had started working on this blog post about the fear of death and the brevity and preciousness of life – I’d already written the body of it – when we heard news of another Filipino tragedy. We’d already received the bad news of two other incidents in the past week… Just two Sundays ago,…
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On watching movies in the theatre
At film school last semester, I became attuned to the importance of the debate whether movie theatres will still exist or not in the future, and how it’s important to still watch movies in the theatre. (I guess the first time I heard about this debate was in 2021, through my Intro to Filmmaking class,…
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“You can’t perch here”
Plucking one of my stories from wattpad to here LOL. (as an attempt to go back to feeling like a teen writer, my golden years :P) It was from a few months ago. The prompt? Write a scene from the point of view of an animal. Note (also taken from what I put on Wattpad):…
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The Birdkeeper (a short story)
My wife was a free spirit, an independent soul. She had an iron will and was used to carving her own path. When I met her, I wanted her, and she came to me, she came to love me… She went down to earth to meet me. We built a home in the city, in…