The parallel universes of Mainstream and Indie

There are two movie industries in the Philippines, separated by cost, aspiration and aesthetics. Like parallel universes, each seems unaware of the other’s existence; in fact they actively ignore each other. It is odd, but not so surprising in the Philippines, a land of paradoxes, where film producers complain of meager profits but movie actors are regularly voted into public office.

Of the two movie industries the more popular and profitable is the Mainstream represented by Star Cinema, part of a conglomerate; Regal Films, once the dominant player, now an also-ran which nonetheless accounts for half the movies in the annual Metro Manila Film Festival; and Viva Films, which mostly co-produces films starring its most valuable asset, Sarah Geronimo.

The top-grossing Filipino movie of 2009 (not counting the Metro Filmfest) was You Changed My Life, a Star-Viva production starring Sarah Geronimo and John Lloyd Cruz, sequel to the 2008 top grosser, A Very Special Love. Cruz has headlined the number one box office movie for three years in a row. The second highest-grossing movie was In My Life, a melodrama also starring John Lloyd Cruz and the most enduring star in Philippine movies, Vilma Santos. Next was BFF (Best Friends Forever) starring comedy queen Ai Ai de las Alas and “megastar” Sharon Cuneta.

At the Metro Filmfest the box-office champion was Panday, the latest installment in the comic book fantasy series which started in the 1970s. The latest version, spruced up with special effects that looked amazingly like the Mordor scenes in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, starred action star- turned-senator Bong Revilla.

The Mainstream follows the rules and conventions of Hollywood movies from the 1950s: big-name stars, histrionics, forced happy

endings. The audience leaves the theater reassured that all is right and glamorous in the celluloid world. Occasionally there are attempts to introduce elements from the real world, notably in In My Life, where a middle-aged mother — a recent immigrant to the United States — must not only deal with her new life in an unfamiliar environment but also with her son’s relationship with another man. The movie is lifted by fine performances from Santos and from Cruz, who despite his box-office standing is a sorely underutilized talent. However, the rest of the movie unfolds in the predictable fashion. The important thing is to please the viewers and stay close to their expectations: big acting moments, tears, a happy ending. Art, talent and originality are excellent concepts to mention in media releases, but no one should be fooled into thinking these matter more than the bottom line. In the Mainstream universe, filmmaking is a business.

The other Philippine movie industry calls itself Indie for independent or non-studiobased. In short, the primary difference between Mainstream and Indie in the Philippines is where the money comes from.

Indie in the Philippines can not yet be considered a school, aesthetic, or philosophy: many independently-produced movies are indistinguishable from studio product. Within the Indie universe there are many disparate styles and schools: from the strictly arthouse to the audience-friendly. Consider the two best-known Filipino Indies of 2009: Joyce Bernal’s Kimmy Dora, and Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay.

Kimmy Dora was the fourth highest local grosser of 2009. Apart from the fact that it was not studio-produced, it may well have been a Mainstream product. Its director, Joyce Bernal, has helmed many hits, screenwriter Chris Martinez has written major studio movies, and its producers include the matinee idol Piolo Pascual. Kimmy Dora star Eugene Domingo is one of the mainstream industry’s busiest supporting players, and her leading man Dingdong Dantes is one of the country’s most popular actors.

Distribution is a major problem for the Indies: apart from the Robinsons mall multiplexes, the big theater chains often decline to screen Indies. Kimmy Dora easily surmounted this obstacle through a distribution deal with Star Cinema. As for the movie itself, a madcap send-up of Korean telenovelas, it is faithful to the comedy formula that has been around since the 1950s (mugging, slapstick, making fun of the different). It may be argued that Kimmy Dora is not Indie at all, but a cleverly-disguised Mainstream movie.

Kinatay (Butchered) is indubitably Indie — funding came from the director’s French distributors — but it is on the accessible end of the Indie arthouse spectrum (Lav Diaz’s movies being at the other end).

Working from a screenplay by Armando Lao, the prolific Brillante Mendoza made a film about a grisly murder made all the more harrowing by the fact that the crime is not dramatized. Mendoza was awarded the Best Director prize at the Cannes film festival, the highest recognition a Filipino production has ever garnered at a major event.

He declined a local theatrical run for his film, opting for special screenings for students and the cognoscenti; in all, Kinatay generated far more attention abroad than it did in at home.

Then again, the same can be said of all the local Indies.

Just weeks after his Cannes triumph, Mendoza was at the Venice filmfest, where his Lola was the surprise film in competition. Mendoza may be the first filmmaker to have two different films in competition in the same year at Cannes and Venice. In Venice, the young Indie filmmaker Pepe Diokno bagged the Best First Feature and Lion of the Future prizes for his gang war film, Engkwentro. Diokno, 22, was widely praised in the local media, but his movie remains unseen by the general public.

The Indie movie industry in the Philippines is largely defined by its opposition to the mainstream: artistic aspirations usually trump commercial considerations. Not that Indies would reject box-office success, but at this time the trade-off seems unacceptable. Indie filmmakers such as Lav Diaz, Raya Martin, and Sherad Anthony Sanchez are much better known and appreciated in international festivals than in their own country. Similarly, commercially successful Filipino Mainstream movies have not found markets outside the Philippines apart from Filipino overseas workers.

It would make sense for these two disparate worlds to collaborate, but with the exception of actors who appear in both Indie and Mainstream projects, the gap appears to be unbridgeable. Consider the selection of the official Philippine entry to the Best Foreign Film category at

the Oscars. Given that this prize is awarded by foreigners, it would seem logical to choose a local movie that has had some success abroad. Kinatay or Engkuwentro would be an obvious nominee, or Raya Martin’s Cannes entry Independencia, or another festival film.

Instead, the Film Academy of the Philippines picked Soxy Topacio’s Ded Na Si Lolo — funny, broadly acted, full of local color, and despite its low budget, solidly Mainstream. It is as if the Indies did not exist at all.