Thriller (viral video)

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Thriller on YouTube.

A remake of Michael Jackson's Thriller music video[1] by prison inmates from the Philippines has become a popular viral video.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

The video was uploaded to YouTube by Byron Garcia, a security consultant for the local government, who is also credited with starting the program of choreographed exercise routines for the inmates.^[1]^[2]

On December 19, 2007, Time Magazine placed the inmates' Cebu Thriller as 5th in the list of chosen 10 "most popular viral videos" of the year. Time's stated description of the prisoners was: "Orange-jumpsuited accused murderers, rapists and drug dealers paid homage to Michael Jackson's Thriller in a dance performance filmed at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines (CPDRC)."^[5] Thus, on December 27, 2007, Vice Mayor Michael Rama, acting mayor of Cebu City, noted the inmates’ request to be in the Sinulog Festival as Sinulog Foundation executive director Ricky Ballesteros informed the former of the possibility of CPDRC’s participation.^[6]^[7]

1 Background
2 Response
3 Abuse Claims
4 Presentations / Dances
5 Performers
6 Dancing for Discipline
7 See also
8 Notes
9 External links

[edit] Background

Garcia originally wanted to introduce a program at Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) where inmates would exercise for an hour each day. He saw waves of prisoners in the exercise yard and thought it looked good.^[3]

He introduced an exercise program where the prisoners marched in unison, starting out with marching to the beat of a drum, but moved on to dancing to pop music; he began with one of his favourite songs, Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2).^[3] He chose camp music such as In The Navy and Y.M.C.A. by The Village People, so macho prisoners would not be offended at being asked to dance.^[1]

Garcia's first upload of prisoner choreography was the Algorithm March^[8], but this was almost entirely ignored. Thriller was uploaded on July 17, 2007^[9].

[edit] Response

Thriller became an instant hit, reaching as much as 300,000 views per day (with 14,600,406 views, 41,044 ratings and 32,314 text comments, as of April, 2008). A performance of the routine at Cebu City's Founding Day celebrations resulted in a donation of 1.6 million pesos. Each inmate received 1000 pesos.^[10]

On October 6, 2007, Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal visited CPDRC for the first time, and the prisoners performed six dances for him, as part of the celebration of the Prison Awareness Month; the Archbishop noted, "It was a marvelous show of discipline. If only they had practiced that (discipline) in their lives, they wouldn’t be here.”^[11]

Garcia is currently teaching the inmates Together In Electric Dreams, which will be presented to his sister, the provincial governor Gwendolyn Garcia, on her birthday in October.^[12]^[13]

Starting April, 2008, Cebu provincial inmates' live dances attracted many visitors. After the 2 hour monthly program (last Saturday), visitors can have their pictures taken with the prisoners and buy souvenir prison shirts.^[14]

[edit] Abuse Claims

The British Channel 4 Documentary "Murderers on the Dancefloor" broadcast in January 2008 portrayed life in the prison. The program showed various inmates praising Byron Garcia, the founder of the initiative - many of whom had tattoos praising Mr Garcia. However, it also featured an anonymous ex-inmate who claimed Mr Garcia employs certain prisoners to beat prisoners who refuse to dance. Garcia was filmed in the documentary holding an American M4 Carbine, saying, "This is an M16 M4 rifle, and it can make people dance", before aiming the gun at the cameraman. This statement was acknowledged as a joke by the narrator. His Youtube account, however, states any accusation that any form of abuse goes on as part of the program is false, and the program serves the purpose of reforming the inmates.

[edit] Presentations / Dances

Algorithm March (Japanese Song)
Bebot - Black Eyed Peas
Canon in D
Dayang Dayang
Do the Hustle - (Marching) / Previous tune: YMCA
Do the Hustle - (Line Dance)
Gregorian Chant
Hail Holy Queen - Sister Act
I Need a Hero (Bonnie Tyler song)
I will follow Him - Sister Act
Jumbo Hotdog
Jump
Radio Gaga - Queen
Rico Mambo
Soulja Boy
The Haruhi Dance (Hare Hare Yukai)
Thriller - Michael Jackson (Most Popular)
Together in Electric Dreams

[edit] Performers

Crisanto Nierre plays Michael Jackson's role in the video. He is pleased that his relatives worldwide have seen his performance. The openly gay inmate Wenjiel Resane plays the role of Michael Jackson's girlfriend^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Dancing for Discipline

The Thriller video inspired a short documentary by young filmmaker Pepe Diokno, entitled Dancing For Discipline. The documentary is a pointed examination of the cultures of power in Philippine systems, with telling interviews of Byron Garcia and inmates Wenjiel Resane and Crisanto Niere. In a column for the Philippine Star Diokno writes, "Jails are a microcosm of society, and in them we can clearly see how the cultures of power and patronage play. This is what Dancing for Discipline is about."^[15]

The film was funded from a grant by USAID through the Asia Foundation, and is part of a series of short films about Philippine jails, entitled Rock the Rehas. The three other films in the series are DokumenTADO: Rock the Rehas by Tado Jimenez, Buhay Looban by Lourd de Veyra, and 1048:2261 by Gang Badoy. ^[16] These premiered on November 25, 2007, in Makati, Philippines, with Philippine Supreme Court Justice Reynato Puno in attendance, hailing the effort.