A new channel on Filipino pride

How did basketball evolve from a game similar to the native tumbang preso? What do the Dallas Cowboys, Manny Pacquiao and Paeng Nepomuceno have in common? How do we connect Fernando Poe Jr., Bruce Lee, Filipino stick fighting, and the Marvel Studios “Avengers” movies?

It seems that a love for one’s sports, history and culture has a place among the youth. That is one of the beliefs behind the creation of a new YouTube channel dedicated to adding pride to the Philippines’ place in world history in a fun way and, of course, with a very strong sports component. Curiously enough, the production team is composed of twenty-somethings bent on changing how we look at ourselves in history.

Last Friday, a new content creation company called Br?? Ideas and Solutions launched “Flip Lang” on YouTube, from an original concept by this writer. In the weekly short-form program, we connect seemingly unconnected historical events, and find ourselves ending up with something Filipino. The next channel to be launched features hilarious interactions between international Filipino comic Tim Tayag and small children giving their opinion on grown-up subjects.

“We really wanted to put together a ‘creative collective’ involving a wide range of experts from different industries and insightful people who look at things differently,” says Dolores Cheng, one of Br??’s founding partners. “We want to engage youth and young adults with interesting and entertaining content in the language they speak today.”

“We’ll gauge how the audience receives the show, and evolve it as needed,” adds Matthew Azada, a producer and partner in the company. “It’s fun to discover how everything is connected, and how it all finds its way home to the Philippines.”

Over more than six months, the team has been verifying research, collating and curating visuals, and editing non-stop. Twenty-two episodes have been recorded, with a new one to be released every week. “Flip Lang” hopes to satisfy the curiosity of the mainstream audiences and information geeks, as well. In the end, we will all realize how much Filipinos have influenced the world.

The pilot episode links the creation of basketball, tumbang preso, the Olympics, and the birth of air travel, for starters. Another episode connects Filipino hero Lapu-Lapu, Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, the movie “Starship Troopers” and Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay. As we’ve said, seemingly unconnected, but surprisingly bridged to the Philippines. Still another episode links horseback riding to the invention of high-heeled shoes, and ends up with the law protecting female employees from being required to wear them. Still another episode delves into the evolution of bodybuilding, and how the Philippines has become a world power in the sport.

You will be reintroduced to familiar names like Trovador Ramos and Roland Dantes, encounter Ambrosio Padilla and our 1936 Olympic team, and learn about global pioneers and see how the world has learned so much from Filipinos, not just in sports, but in every field imaginable.

New episodes of “Flip Lang” are launched on YouTube every Friday.