ASIN Movie Blog

On Location

lennie@philippineseasalts.com (Lennie DiCarlo) — Mon, 23 May 2022 21:51:11 GMT

On Location | May 22, 2022

Lennie DiCarlo

We’re on location. Shooting the final parts of the film. They call it pelicula here. It’s a year in the making for an independent documentary and it has definitely been a challenge due to COVID-19 restrictions. It’s also been very exciting to watch our director and film crew at work. We still have so much to do but it’s all coming together. I’m excited and cant’ wait to share to the world that salt – ASIN – has so many stories to tell.

Film Shoot – Precolonial Salt

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 15:42:58 GMT

Director’s Blog | Film Shoot – Precolonial Salt | Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte | Jun 10, 2021
Cocoy Ventura

Today we had the pleasure of witnessing what may well be one of the oldest methods of salt-making in Pasuquin, a technique which supposedly dates back to precolonial times. This unique method involves extracting salt by laboriously collecting the beach sand itself. Not everyone gets to see this being done. To witness it, we had to travel by foot — at one point, over a precarious bridge of wooden planks across an old mangrove forest — to the home of Marites Alnas. The process, according to her, is an act of supplication to nature: despite her over 50 years of experience, there are days when salt simply cannot be coaxed from the sands. Nature, she says, decides everything. Thankfully, nature smiled on us today, allowing us to witness Marites firsthand and to see the fruits of her labors for ourselves.

Film Shoot – A Smoky Place

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 15:43:18 GMT

Director’s Blog | Film Shoot – A Smoky Place | Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte | Jun 10,2021

Cocoy Ventura

Folk legend has it that the first settlers of Pasuquin were Itneg and Ibaliw people from the mountains who were driven from their upland homes down to the coast. They were known as nagrebkan — the vanquished, the defeated — and were documented by Spanish missionaries, who called them Ibaloi.

The people of Pasuquin were always an enterprising lot. Despite attacks from Chinese and Moro ships, these people were able to clear out forests and turn them into farmlands. Fishing and salt making soon became common industries, and it is from this latter that the place supposedly derived its name: a place where brine is cooked down to salt is usually smoky or paasukan — Ilocano for a place full of smoke. In time, paasukan became Pasuquin.

Before the pandemic, Pasuquin was a thriving municipality and one of the richest towns in Ilocos Norte. Their salt industry remains a time-honored tradition, with some family businesses going back as far as six generations.

That’s where we’re going today. But already, we’re a day late because of Ilocos Norte’s strict entry requirements. Ironically, so-called “rapid COVID tests” aren’t as “rapid” as their name would suggest here in Isabela. We have to wait until tomorrow for the results before we can be cleared for travel again.

So many of us are still trying to come to terms with this “new normal.” But trust me, things will never be normal again — at least, not in the way we used to know. This pandemic is a catalyst for change, from the smallest bits of our lives up to larger things like business and industry. Pasuquin’s main economic driver is tourism, evidenced by the countless resorts along its shore, but that has dried up since the pandemic began. Their salt industry was always a main tourist attraction. I can only wonder how long it can survive without tourists to sustain it.

Day 2: Film Shoot – A Days Wages

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 15:15:46 GMT

Director’s Blog | Day 2: Film Shoot – A Days Wages | Alaminos, Pangasinan | Apr 20, 2021

Cocoy Ventura

We skipped breakfast because we had a really big dinner at Auntie Ann’s house last night, our hostess. We had tiger prawns and pork adobo. We ate to our heart’s content!

The next day, the team and I decided to hit the local public market early because we wanted to see how the local salt was utilized. There, we found Manang Patricia, a 63-year-old Alaminos longganisa maker. She started working at her family’s meat stall at the age of 16; that’s 47 years of selling longganisa.

In the market, many vendors claimed their sausage as the best. But before we met Manang Patricia, we were referred to one vendor, it turned out that she’s a local celebrity known for her sausages. As she recited her accolades, name-dropping Manila celebrities she’d been with and TV shows she was featured in, my interest searched for an escape. At the corner of my eye, several feet at the end of the stall, there was a group of men manually encasing longganisa, as if they were racing. It piqued my curiosity so I politely said goodbye to the longganisa starlet and went over to the group of working men. That’s how we learned that Manang Patricia owned the operation and that she is the largest longganisa producer in that market. It turned out that the quieter and demure sausage vendor supplies the entirety of Pangasinan, National Capital Region (NCR – Metropolitan Manila) and other areas. Apart from the longganisa, her stall offers other cured meats. She said that due the pandemic, what we saw today was just a fraction of her original labor force. She felt a responsibility to employ her key people and they too depended on her for their survival. To know more about Manang Patricia’s family-run operation, check her daughter’s vlog on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IX3gdZFCBlA .

After the market, we went back to the salt farms to film the harvest. We met up with Arnold, son in charge of the main salt farm owner of the area. Although the gray skies and the wind howling, the day was relatively warm as we were religiously supplied with iced water by Arnold’s staff. The water seemed to have tasted like syrup just from being surrounded with endless salt for a couple days now.

Salt harvest is a sight to behold. It’s not easy, but the farmers make it look so effortless. It makes one wonder how much we take salt for granted — seeing first-hand the back breaking work involved, in exchange for a daily wage of $5 or less (the latter, in most cases).

First Day Of Shooting

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 15:15:46 GMT

Director's Blog | First Day of Shooting | Alaminos, Pangasinan | Apr 19, 2021

Cocoy Ventura

Even though I’ve been to Pangasinan for quite a few times, each time, it felt different. Like today, the skies are unusually gray compared from the bright, sunny, briny breezy-kind-of-day in my recollection. There’s a bit of rain along the way and the winds are quite strong. It seemed liked the tentacles of the typhoon on the other side of Luzon, in Isabela where we came from, stretched all the way to Alaminos, Pangasinan.

We arrived a little passed 10:00 in the morning and decided to head out right away to the salt farms. We surveyed the landscape and, just like how I remembered it, wherever you stand, the landscapes are equally breathtaking — in any kind of weather.

We couldn’t fly Poquita, our drone, high enough due to the strong winds. We still tried but closer to the ground to get some flyby of the terracotta-lined salt beds. The timelapse of the grounds and the skies are stunning — with the running clouds against the purple sky. It was absurd yet arrestingly beautiful.

Unfortunately, there was no salt harvest that afternoon due to the dark skies and drizzle that watered down the saltwater concentrate. The farmers advised for us to come back tomorrow.

The Journey

Sun, 18 Apr 2021 15:15:46 GMT

The Journey | Aug 31, 2021

Lennie DiCarlo

When I first started in this business, the salt business, I didn’t realize then how much it would change me. That was over 15 years ago. My journey started over a trip to the Philippines in 2005. That was the year I rediscovered my roots. Yes, silly as it may sound, I found my calling or should I say, IT found me. I didn’t realize then but over time, IT has revealed itself.

When people tell you that life is a journey, it’s not the destination but the journey you take to get there. Well it’s true!

As I continue on my journey, I met people who have become friends, who are now my partners. The road that got me here today has graced me with ability and platform to share the story of Philippine Sea Salts.

ASIN Movie Blog

On Location

On Location | May 22, 2022

Lennie DiCarlo

Film Shoot – Precolonial Salt

Director’s Blog | Film Shoot – Precolonial Salt | Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte | Jun 10, 2021 Cocoy Ventura

Film Shoot – A Smoky Place

Day 2: Film Shoot – A Days Wages

First Day Of Shooting

The Journey

The Journey | Aug 31, 2021

Lennie DiCarlo

Director’s Blog | Film Shoot – Precolonial Salt | Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte | Jun 10, 2021
Cocoy Ventura