It's so awful, and such a huge loss. Here were two young and talented people who had bright futures ahead of them. Alexis could have lived in Vancouver with the rest of his family but he chose to stay here and make his contribution to a community and industry that needs all the support it can get. He was passionate about Filipino film and championed it.

On the day Alexis Tioseco died, his friend Erwin Romulo was sitting in my apartment to use the internet. As I leafed through the 101st commemorative issue of the Philippine Free Press (Alexis wrote for them), we discussed the appearance of Alexis on the program "Media in Focus" along with Butch Dalisay and Carlo J. Caparas where they discuss the National Artist Awards controversy. I remarked on how cool, eloquent, and unfailingly polite Alexis appeared sitting next to Caparas. Erwin said "Pero yung mga sinabi niya may nilalaman di ba?"

Despite the grief of his family, friends, colleagues, and students he leaves behind a significant legacy that cannot be ignored. He stuck to his guns. He knew his shit. He did it out of love. Alexis Tioseco wrote Wishful Thinking for Philippine Cinema on his blog and ended with this:

"I wish less filmmakers compromised.
I wish more filmmakers admitted when they did.
I wish we focused our attention more on audience education, development and literacy, than on dumbing down films to pander to them.
I wish Philippine cinema all the success in the world. . ."

I wish the same thing. And I wish we didn't have to say goodbye to this brave and brilliant voice so soon.

Photos by Christian Yambing.