Will MMFF succeed in boosting the indies?

MANILA, Philippines - There are many welcome innovations in this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), among them the tribute to indie films Dec. 16 to 20. Also, there is the designation of lawyer Francis Tolentino, former Tagaytay Mayor now chair of MMDA concurrent with MMFF; good old benchmarks Boots Anson-Roa, Leo Martinez, Manny Nuqui, Wilson Tieng, Dominic Du; new joiners QC Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista, MTRCB’s Grace Poe-Llamanzares, and Jesse Ejercito, MMFF executive vice chairman all of whose hearts belong to Philippine cinema.

The state of Philippine movies today is such that to attract the audience producers need to sell sex, violence and banality while contributing to the degradation of morals, and loss of standards. Adversaries have included foreign films, piracy and heavy taxation. We remember a past suggestion from Viva’s Vic del Rosario as Gloria Macapagal’s Film Czar for a five-year moratorium on taxes for local and digital films, plus all film-related raw materials to help revive the dying industry. Perhaps, it would do well to heed this proposal today.

A most welcome development is the Tribute to the Indie Films — Philippine Premiere side bar to MMFF. “This is entirely the bright idea of Atty. Tolentino,” says Jesse. “ Because of time constraints (starting August), we decided to hold a pre-festival offering of indie films not shown commercially in the Philippines or abroad, at an invitational premiere night at Robinsons Galeria.

The executive committee’s preparatory committee was assigned to spread the word, screen the nine qualified entries and choose the final five. Premiere night schedules at 7 p.m., Cinema 3 of Galeria are: Tonight, Nasaan si Hefte by Jonnah Lim; tomorrow, Dec. 17 Presa by Adolf Alix; Dec. 18, Senior Year by Jerrold Tarog; Dec. 19, Rindido by Noriel Jarito; and Dec. 20, Slow Fade by Rommel Sales.

 At the media affair where each director talked about his film and presented his cast, the five chosen couldn’t have been more democratic from the much-awarded Adolf to Noriel who claimed he had to be actor and filmmaker to save on funds.

Adolf’s Presa has a stellar cast of Anita Linda, Tetchie Agbayani, Rosanna Roces, Perla Bautista, Jodi Santamaria and Ina Feleo and deals with women in the correctional awaiting pardon. Anita Linda (Best Actress in Brilliante “Dante” Mendoza’s Lola at the 54th Asia Pacific Film festival) attended the presscon with Perla Bautista.

Another star attendee was Diether Ocampo whose Slow Fade tells of a man dying of cancer which attracted Diet as his dad had died of cancer. The film had won a P1-M grant from Cinemabuhay PLDT Smart Foundation. Diet also has a mainstream entry in Dalaw with Kris Aquino. At the same time, Ina who has been active on TV and the indie scene is appearing in both Senior Year and Presa. Will the participation of mainstream stars help the entries? We can only tell based on premiere night and theatrical attendance after the MMFF. For the moment it is obvious that the presence of Diet, Anita, and Perla at the media launch is helping in the promotions of their respective entries.

Meanwhile, Jonnah who megged Nasaan si Hefte has enough awards in festivals abroad, plus a UP BA in Film and MA at the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication to back up his expertise. Nasaan is an experiment on multi-level storytelling of both past and present when a boy is swept away by a strong current during a riverside picnic.

Jerrold’s entry Senior Year is a lighthearted view of 10 middle-class high school seniors with adults in flashbacks reminiscing the past, and students played by actual seniors of the school. Apparently, the Cinema Evaluation Board was visibly impressed to have given it an A rating.

Noriel who introduced his film Rindido to chuckles close to derision from some of the audience confesses that his film contains some sex and blood and is the story of a Pinoy OFW who catches his wife with a lover, and runs amok terrorizing the neighborhood. It hopes to show the evils of the OFW phenomenon in breaking up families.

Someone from the press asked lawyer Tolentino if there was an award at stake for the indies. It had been clear to participants they were only exhibitors, although all expenses for the premiere night, promotions, press conferences, a common float for the five entries would be spent by the MMFF. Tolentino, however, relented and announced a P100,000 reward for the Best Indie entry to be given together with the Mainstream on Awards night Dec. 26 at the Meralco Theater. It was indeed a happy pre-Christmas gift for the five competitors.

“This is just a start, a trial balloon. We can prepare as early as June next year,” says Jesse. “This year, we only accepted full-length entries. After that, we might follow the model of Cinemalaya and include shorts in the program. It all depends on the response of the public.”

 We share the hopes of lawyer Tolentino and his team that the exposure given to the five pre-festival entries would help in bringing public awareness to the indies. Past efforts like Robinsons exclusive screening of indies in its Indie Sine; even Cine Direk of Eat, Bulaga! producer Tony Tuviera which produced six films by veterans following out-of-the-box traits of the indies have failed miserably. And yet out of the measly 50 movies produced nowadays (from 250 in the late ’70s), most are indies gaining acclaim abroad. The indies have helped perpetuate the name of Philippine cinema internationally. But domestically, they have failed. Who is at fault? Our educational system? Our warped sense of values? Our star-driven mentality?

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