Shameless Plug is a new series where we turn things over to creatives. In exchange for plugging their project, they have to spill their guilty pleasure, biggest inspiration, personal motto and a few other secrets.

Alyssa Medel is into “everything storytelling really”. Her creative work is primarily writing and directing in film and theatre. She was born in Davao City, Philippines, and was raised there and in Birmingham, UK before her family settled in Aotearoa. She is mostly based in Tāmaki Makaurau but can often be found in Davao – she is a proud Filipino and a proud JAFA. 

Alyssa did not start her career in the arts with connections or a privileged background. She found herself in the producing and arts administration space, as well as managing venues, and programmes. Those roles have seen her become “jaded” about the arts ecosystem, but she’s passionate about being there to help change the system and make it more accessible for people like herself.

Here is Alyssa’s Shameless Plug:

My favourite local artist (that I don’t know) is Ron Sang. Okay this one’s cheating a bit, I do know him but I didn’t know he was an artist. He was our family’s go to JP when I was a kid, like the very cool, warm and friendly neighbour with a really awesome house who we’d go to witness us signing papers. It wasn’t until much later that I realised he was the Ron Sang.

The most fun I’ve ever had on a project was a short film I wrote and directed called Padayon. We finished shooting last year! It was essentially me, my friends, and my mum running around the Civic Theatre.

My hottest career hack is taking three month long trips to Davao City. The unreliable wifi and regular power outages is the only way to get a real break from the hustle and social media noise. As a digital native who is chronically online, social media has increasingly become comparison’s ultimate tool to steal my joy. Especially as an artist and feeling the pressure and need to build your own “brand” and “clout”. Being literally forced to stay offline, and be present with my family is the thing my sanity needs regularly, and grounds me as I navigate my career. I just wish I could afford to make these trips more than once every other year.

The moment I knew I wanted to be an artist was when I was six years old watching The Mummy. Though the film has not aged very well (lol), it was pure cinematic adventure and I just wanted to be part of it immediately. Though, I was always a performer as a child, singing, dancing, and acting. I think I inherently wanted to be in the arts since I was born.

The place I feel most creative is Ilang, Davao City. Ilang is one of the villages I grew up in, and is the one place I feel the most myself, and when I’m the most myself, I’m the most creative.

My biggest inspiration is my family. Both my parents wanted to be artists when they were growing up; my mum did the music thing and auditioned everywhere in Manila, and my dad wanted to be a visual artist while also being a tattoo artist. But, they both needed to do what was necessary to survive, especially when they had me at a very young age. Migrating to the UK made it nearly impossible to keep pursuing their practices, they were fully in the immigrant hustle. Though my dad was eventually able to keep tattooing on the side, I felt sad that he couldn’t make it his full-time practice. They’ve worked so hard for me, I’m lucky that they’re so supportive of my pursuing a career in the arts, and have always wanted me to pursue what I love when they couldn’t.

An artwork I wish I had made is Cure directed by Hiroshi Kurosawa. 
Gets under your skin kind of film, and so intelligent.

I keep myself accountable by having a strong community around me. I’m so lucky to be around incredibly intelligent and thoughtful people! So it really makes me think about my practice and approach in all ways, and accountability needs that constant progress. I’m also someone who tends to put herself last, in a very “these other things are more important!” “woe is me” fashion. It’s something I’m working on, honestly, but it has been great having a community around me that reminds me that I can only give as much as I have for myself. Step by step in the #selflove journey. 

My favourite arts space (venue, gallery, theatre, rehearsal space, etc) is Basement Theatre. I may be biased, but there really is no other place in the world like the Basement. Trust me, I’ve gone down a rabbit hole looking into it.

The best thing about being in the arts is he tangata, he tangata, he tangata! I think this whakataukī is an answer for a lot of things, but the people, the community, the collective we have here, most specifically in Aotearoa, is the one reason I have stayed and kept going. The arts as a whole revolves around us understanding and unraveling what it means to be human, and that exercise and practice we all undertake makes for some really amazing human beings – artists – that make the gruelling journey so worthwhile.

My hot take on filmmaking is that auteur theory is bullshit. Unless you’re really making a film all by yourself, you operate the camera, you’re in front of the camera, etc. I don’t think any film can truly be credited to one person, it’s an innately collaborative venture. Even though maybe the director poured their heart and soul into the work from development to distribution, you can’t forget that so did your producers, and in the process of pre-prod/production so did your HODs, and every single crew member (unless they were a lazy d*ck).

My shameless plug is my play Ilang-Ilang at Basement Theatre, 28 Oct – 1 Nov. It’s my debut play, and I’m excited that it’s also the theatre comeback for two of my favourite actors, Ariadne Baltazar and Marianne Infante. Ilang-Ilang is an ode to my hometown, the women who raised me, and being part of the Filipino diaspora.