FOR TWENTY YEARS, what has Cinemalaya, the Philippine Independent Film Festival, done for the local movie industry, and second, for the Filipino people who have always been its intended market (read: audience)?
Being an independent initiative of a joint effort between the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and Cinemalaya Foundation, Inc. (CFI), it kicked off in 2005 in a very ideal, enthusiastic and defining moment in the history of Philippine cinema.
That Cinemalaya has set the goal to “encourage the creation of new cinematic works by Filipino filmmakers–works that boldly articulate and freely interpret the Filipino experience with fresh insight and artistic integrity” was and still is, inspiring.
‘Film education in both the public and private schools is imperative and unlearning the obscurantist idea that movies are only for entertainment because it is meant as an information as well.’
FROM TRADITIONAL TO EXPERIMENTAL
Year in, year out, novel ideas and concepts in filmmaking have been coming out from diverse filmmakers—from the traditional to the formulaic with a twist to the experimental to the avant-garde etc.
Every art school or movement is represented in every selection from the classic to the naturalistic to the expressionistic to the post-modern, even to the post-post-modern.
Obviously, these moviemakers are products of the epistemology or tenets of art history, formally, if not do-it-yourself, self-study mode.
In my many years of watching Cinemalaya and orientation about cinema showing in CCP theater outlets, I am given the impression that they are “censorship-free” under CCP watch as mandated by the state.
In the past as it is being implied by now, this is one privilege Cinemalaya enjoys.
FREE EXPRESSION
Anyway, let us put this in the right perspective.
The CCP mandates the encouragement of free expression.
This year, though, as the CCP is still under rehabilitation, Cinemalaya 2025 will be screened in commercial movie houses such as Shangri-La Plaza, Ayala Malls and Gateway.
To be sure, if it is still “censorship-free,” I asked the CCP Corporate Communications Information Officer III Glaiza Lee if the Cinemalaya films to be shown this year undergo classification.
In the immediate past, however, Cinemalaya has started to screen in cinemas operated by Ayala Malls.
According to Glaiza, as far as she knows, Cinemalaya films shown at CCP were passed through the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board. “We still go through MTRCB. But we do self-rating ng (of the) film,” she elucidated in a text message.
Oh!
So, it’s not an absolute freedom.
STANDING GROUND
Anyway, Cinemalaya has given the local movie industry the impetus it needs to forward its development especially in the treatment of the material at hand.
It serves as a prototype of the kind of film local productions must produce however perceived as non-commercial, an inspiration to achieve world-class cinema.
How many Cinemalaya films have been shown in prestigious international film festivals?
How many Cinemalaya filmmakers have advanced their careers through the platform?
Cinemalaya is the wellspring of game-changing, cutting-edge, out-of-the-box movies.
No matter the conflicts that arose in the past like filmmakers defying orders from other stakeholders from the private sector or curtailing their free expression, they managed to stand their ground.
FILM EDUCATION
Cinemalaya, in more ways than one, courts big studios to be conduit with them in the burgeoning indie film movement because they symbiotically learn from one another.
In terms of marketing and promotion, if only the powerful and giant multimedia networks support indie cinema by cutting the huge ad prices, Cinemalaya will soar higher and generally, all film fests in the country.
Film education in both the public and private schools is imperative and unlearning the obscurantist idea that movies are only for entertainment because it is meant as an information as well.
Cinemalaya has given the Filipino people the privilege to watch films which are thought provoking and mass appealing.
First and foremost, as a Cinemalaya visionary, the Filipino moviegoer must first learn to accept that, as far as quality film is concerned, there is no gray matter between a mainstream one and an indie outing if meticulously made.