Category: Culture
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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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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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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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randomly remembering Robin Williams
I rewatched Good Will Hunting this week at our little cinema club between me, my sister and our Filipina neighbour, and I remembered I wrote something about Robin Williams on my journal some time ago. Here it is… I had a crush on him when I was a kid, seeing him in Hook, Jumanji, and…
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The Past, Present, and Future of Blogging (from my point of view)
I wish I could be a teenager again and blog the way that I used to. I often wrote about this on the old version of this Wonderfilled Issa blog, but yeah. I had so much time as a homeschooler just to rave about football, my favourite shows and computer games, Lord of the Rings…
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Nolan and the Villanelle (Cinema and Poetry)
So I realised that Nolan’s use of a villanelle for Interstellar is so fitting, considering the poetic form’s mechanics. It’s cyclical in nature, you could say you’re going back in time every stanza…
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The Odysseys of Homeschool Alumni
Homeschoolers are stereotypically characterised as misfits secluded from the world – some as socially awkward, some as geniuses, but mostly as black sheep who don’t conform to more conventional ways of schooling. So what happens to them once they’re pushed off the deep end into the “real world” – the world after homeschool?