Ricky Lee to hold virtual masterclasses for Cinemalaya

FILE: Renowned writer Ricky Lee visited Letran for a whole day scriptwriting seminar and workshop at the Salon de Actos. (Photo: Paul Sugano/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Award-winning author, playwright, and screenwriter Ricky Lee is sharing his wisdom in weaving words and stories once again. This time through workshops in this year’s Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival.

In an interview with CNN, Lee emphasized the importance of telling stories, especially during these times where deaths, suffering, and poverty are prevalent.

“Stories always make us see how things really are,” he said in the interview via Zoom.

Lee, 72, who admitted that being forced to stay home has made him write more, said, “It helps us get by no matter what the problems are. The stories heal.”

With these imparted thoughts, Cinemalaya is hosting Ricky Lee 4D: Celebrating Four Decades of Communal Storytelling on Friday, August 8 for free from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. It will be a virtual reunion via Zoom which will be live-streamed on Vimeo, the festival’s Facebook page, and KUMU channel.

Another virtual event with the icon is Mga Tao at Mga Tauhan: A Masterclass on Storytelling by Ricky Lee which will be on August 9 (Batch 1) and 15 (Batch 2), from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Interested participants for the Zoom event can register for P300.

In his interview with CNN, Lee said that the masterclass is not only for writers but also for non-writers.

“It’s for everybody. It’s very basic. How you put certain elements that don’t fit together but eventually form a story. We can see that all things around, maraming istoryang nakapalibot sa iyo (there are a lot of stories that surround us),” he said.

Mga Tao at Mga Tauhan aims to teach unearthing the truth through stories, featuring Lee’s 11 steps. It will also tackle writing during the pandemic.