Another year, another Cinemalaya done. This year probably isn't going to be hailed as a landmark year for the film fest or anything like that, but the lineup has a few really impressive offerings that make it a Cinemalaya worth seeing.
Cinemalaya and the Cinema of Change
The local independent film landscape has changed drastically. Cinemalaya is now the old stalwart of indie film fests. Many filmmakers have flocked over to fests like Cinema One Originals and QCinema, who have helped make some very interesting films in the past 2 or so years. The Cinemalaya foundation gives filmmakers a grant of 750,000 pesos, and limits their overall budget to something like 3.5 million. I can't tell you if more money necessarily correlates to a better film; there's no empirical proof of that. I can tell you that a couple of films (such as Sa Gabing Nananahimik ang mga Kuliglig) did some amazing things with that miniscule budget, and some filmmakers would probably be undeterred by this notion anyway.
Our country has changed as well in the past year - we have entered an era of impunity, of false news, of fanaticism and misplaced nationalism. We have made an entire segment of the population into boogeymen. And like all forms of art, the cinema of today reflects the zeitgeist in varied and interesting ways. In depicting this change, the movies featured here (and elsewhere) also highlight the sobering fact that many things still remain the same: the widening gap between rich and poor, the lack of justice for the poor and marginalized, the incompetence and corruption in government.
The Emergence of Discourse
Art exists as a means by which we wrestle with our societal problems, to find solutions to change society for the better, and in the themes of the many films in this year's festival, we get just that: neocolonialism, changing definitions of masculinity, the inhumanity of bureaucratic social systems, the unchanging cycle of violence and impunity, the importance of education as a universal right, the concept of otherness, the gnawing societal frustration that leads to vigilantism and lawlessness.
On the flipside, there are also lighthearted films that seek to entertain, or to tell a compelling, personal story. I think these films are just as valid and are part of the discourse as well.
The emergence of social media and the internet has led to a widespread democratization of film appreciation and film criticism. When I started blogging about films (and other stuff) in 2005, there were only a handful of us blogging about Philippine Cinema, and my contemporaries at the time were far better than I am to be honest. 12 years later, anyone with internet access has an opinion about films. Sites like Twitter and Facebook serve as outlets for cinephiles for their film opinions, while longer pieces stay with blogs like this one. I'm also happy to have met a lot of these people in real life during this particular festival; these are people that have never seen in person, but I have read their works for years. It was a joy talking about the films we watched, even though our opinions were wildly divergent. I guess that's where the fun really is; you can't really have proper discourse if you're not talking to someone else. Right?
More than ten years watching this festival and I know I'm getting older. I'm not the avid festival goer that I was five years ago who would go every single day and watch every single film. But this festival will always have a special place in my heart. The crowds may have thinned, the food stalls may not be as numerous, but I'll keep coming as long as I can.
...and I'll always have Gardenia. Because Gardenia is life.
Our country has changed as well in the past year - we have entered an era of impunity, of false news, of fanaticism and misplaced nationalism. We have made an entire segment of the population into boogeymen. And like all forms of art, the cinema of today reflects the zeitgeist in varied and interesting ways. In depicting this change, the movies featured here (and elsewhere) also highlight the sobering fact that many things still remain the same: the widening gap between rich and poor, the lack of justice for the poor and marginalized, the incompetence and corruption in government.
The Emergence of Discourse
Art exists as a means by which we wrestle with our societal problems, to find solutions to change society for the better, and in the themes of the many films in this year's festival, we get just that: neocolonialism, changing definitions of masculinity, the inhumanity of bureaucratic social systems, the unchanging cycle of violence and impunity, the importance of education as a universal right, the concept of otherness, the gnawing societal frustration that leads to vigilantism and lawlessness.
On the flipside, there are also lighthearted films that seek to entertain, or to tell a compelling, personal story. I think these films are just as valid and are part of the discourse as well.
The emergence of social media and the internet has led to a widespread democratization of film appreciation and film criticism. When I started blogging about films (and other stuff) in 2005, there were only a handful of us blogging about Philippine Cinema, and my contemporaries at the time were far better than I am to be honest. 12 years later, anyone with internet access has an opinion about films. Sites like Twitter and Facebook serve as outlets for cinephiles for their film opinions, while longer pieces stay with blogs like this one. I'm also happy to have met a lot of these people in real life during this particular festival; these are people that have never seen in person, but I have read their works for years. It was a joy talking about the films we watched, even though our opinions were wildly divergent. I guess that's where the fun really is; you can't really have proper discourse if you're not talking to someone else. Right?
More than ten years watching this festival and I know I'm getting older. I'm not the avid festival goer that I was five years ago who would go every single day and watch every single film. But this festival will always have a special place in my heart. The crowds may have thinned, the food stalls may not be as numerous, but I'll keep coming as long as I can.
...and I'll always have Gardenia. Because Gardenia is life.
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| THIS IS NOT A SPONSORED POST LOL |
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