It was established in 2018 when it started organizing flea markets in Maginhawa, which created a home for local artists, small entrepreneurs, and people who are looking for new owners for their loved valuables. After a year, it started organizing advocacy gigs and workshops which were free and open to everyone. Previously, Ean Aguila of Ang Bandang Shirley facilitated a workshop on songwriting where he shared his artistic process as a songwriter. In partnership with the Defend Negros Stop the Attacks Network, it also produced the Bulig fundraiser which featured local artists to raise money for the peasants of Negros who are targeted by state forces. It also brought independent films — such as Patay na si Hesus, Ang Kwento Nating Dalawa, and I’m Drunk I Love You — to Palawan, where film selection is largely defined by profit-oriented mainstream cinema houses. Paraluman Productions is guided by its belief that access to various art forms and art production skills should be democratized and should not be exclusive to only a particular group of people. This vision is not merely utilitarian — that art is enriched and therefore more marketable when it is participatory. Rather, this is a product of hope: that in honing the artists within the ordinary Filipino and in providing them with ample spaces to showcase their art, only then will their struggles be accurately reflected in films, music, books, photographs, paintings, illustrations, and other works of art. Ultimately, it wants Filipino art that is liberated and liberating — sining na malaya at mapagpalaya. During the global pandemic, it halted its operations along with the rest of the world. This 2023, Paraluman Productions is revived with a renewed sense of purpose to continue creating pockets of home to local artists and entrepreneurs as well as bringing art and art production to the common Filipino.
