Anti-Gloria films coming soon?

Political unrest may be bad for the economy, but it brings out the creative juices among our film artists – not to mention their rebellious streak. It’s not surprising therefore that a sector of the movie industry has bravely come forward to demand the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Early in 1983, months before the assassination of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., people from the entertainment profession – under the banner Concerned Artists of the Philippines – were already flocking to Liwasang Bonifacio to hold anti-censorship rallies.

Then, Ninoy came home, got killed and people took to the streets – among them, film artists. Between the time of the Aquino assassination and EDSA I, some people from the entertainment industry risked their careers and, more importantly, their lives, and churned out works that didn’t exactly please the Marcos regime.

On television, GMA 7 came out with Viewpoint (hosted by Atty. Dong Puno), a public affairs program that was no Marcos mouthpiece. Channel 7 that time was the only network that was not controlled by Marcos and his cronies and its news programs became a venue for the opposition group to air its gripes against the abuses of the Marcos administration.

On the big screen, some of our local directors came out with film projects that reflected the times and the truth – a no-no during the Marcos era. One movie that was released that time (1985) was Lino Brocka‘s Miguelito: Ang Batang Rebelde, starring Aga Muhlach and the late Nida Blanca.

It was a daring move for Brocka to come up with a film project (actually produced by Aga‘s father, Cheng Muhlach), like Miguelito that time because it featured a corrupt small town mayor (Eddie Garcia), who resorted to guns, goons and gold to control his turf. You were not supposed to do that because during Marcos’ time, the political system was "perfect."

The year before, Mike de Leon directed Sister Stella L. for Regal Films. Written by Pete Lacaba, Jose Almojuela and Mike de Leon, it chronicled the political awakening of a nun – as portrayed by Vilma Santos.

Sister Stella L. was the biggest box-office disappointment of the year. It was clobbered at the tills by Sharon Cuneta’s Bukas Luluhod ang mga Tala, a komiks material from Viva Films.

But in spite of Sister Stella L.’s poor box-office performance, Vilma Santos will always be proud of this film (it won for her the Urian Best Actress trophy that year) and she has reason to be because it ranks among the best of Filipino movies.

One local film that was really given a tough time by the Marcos administration was another Brocka film, Kapit sa Patalim (Bayan Ko), which had to go to court in order to be shown. By the time it was exhibited publicly in Manila, Brocka had already organized so many private screenings no one paid anymore to watch during the commercial run.

Other local movies that dared mirror the times during that period were Ishmael Bernal’s Hinugot Ka sa Langit and to a certain extent, Working Girls (office workers in Ayala Ave. made confetti for street rallies and vehicles sported yellow ribbons).

Now that there is so much disenchantment over the Arroyo government, I won’t be surprised if our local directors would start churning out films with anti-Gloria sentiments. It’s so easy to do that now – especially in this era of digital films that could be produced on a really low budget.

The Arroyo administration, on the other hand, can also use film to divert the attention away from the scandals that continue to plague this administration. All it has to do is to instruct the MTRCB to go easy on sex films (although there aren’t that many that are being produced now) and the masses may forget about the jueteng issue and the whole Hello Garci spectacle.

This tactic may work to her favor – but only temporarily. The Filipino audience will also get tired watching sex films – especially when their movie tickets are being slapped with EVAT – and eventually the attention will shift back to the real issues that continue to weaken the Arroyo administration.

I don‘t know if the Arroyo government will resort to this move, but if one day we see sex films flooding our movie theaters, it‘s a clear indication that this administration is already starting to panic.