Cinemalaya plans to reform, reconsiders disqualified entry

Amid controversy, the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival Organizing Committee agreed to reconsider a film earlier disqualified for its director's casting choices.

 

Cultural Center of the Philippines vice president and artistic director Chris Millado said that in its recent meeting, the organizing committee agreed that Emerson Reyes' film "MNL 143" should be reconsidered for the competition.

 

"They asked me to communicate to Emerson if he's willing to reconsider to be part of the process again and submit the requirements in terms of the casting choices he wanted to pursue," said Millado during a forum of the Film Desk of the Young Critics Circle held Wednesday at the University of the Philippines.

 

The disqualification was based on Reyes’ casting choices of actors Alan Paule and Joy Viado, who were found "not suitable for the material" by Cinemalaya Competition Chairperson Laurice Guillen Feleo and Cinemalaya Monitoring Head Robbie Tan.

 

However, the 26-year-old Reyes said he wanted to move on.

 

"Personally parang siguro next year na lang din kapag may nagbago. Pero sa ngayon na magulo pa ‘wag na lang. Parang nasuka na ako. Bakit pa ako babalik?" said Reyes.

 

Now on its 8th year, Cinemalaya will also reform some of its processes, Millado revealed.

 

In order to return to Cinemalaya's vision of nurturing new talent, he said the festival's organizing committee agreed at a meeting last week that there may be a need to establish another oversight committee, and rotate the members of the monitoring committee.

 

According to Millado, this is "to always have a fresh mandate in terms of looking at the administrative choices."

 

Millado said CCP must assert its mandate in relation to Cinemalaya’s mandate, in order to address the “vision drift” caused by the creative tension between nurturing talent and pursuing standards of excellence. "A MOA (memorandum of agreement) is forthcoming to really outline this," said Millado, explaining that there is no formal agreement between CCP and Cinemalaya Foundation, Inc., who founded the festival together in 2005.

 

"We have come to the stage that we need to clarify it because there will be changing of the guards and kailangan bantayan ‘yung vision na ‘yun all throughout the years," said Millado.

 

According to film critic and lawyer Francis Cruz, the problem stems from the understanding of Cinemalaya as a festival that aims 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." Based on previous experiences, Cruz observed that there is not that much freedom in Cinemalaya, after all.

 

"I've been hearing about the problems of Cinemalaya every since," shared Cruz, who has also been sitting in the festival's selection committee for two years.

 

Cruz suggested that Cinemalaya should clarify its goals, as well as its relationship to the filmmaker.

 

"From what I heard, the goal is to bridge the mainstream and the independent. And if that is so, that's scary," said Cruz. "Does it want to be a grant-giver? Does it want to be a producer?" asked Cruz, pointing out that the Cinemalaya seed capital of P500,000 actually looks like an investment.

 

"It's a confused system that I hope somebody within that system would untangle, kahit it would take one year, two years... Let it be clear. There are filmmakers who would just want to create and in turn sacrifice their creative input; just to make their film they would come. But for you to attract filmmakers like Emerson and all these others who are making noise because they've experienced this before, it's a little bit sad," said Cruz.

 

"Gusto ko ng clarity kung ano ba talaga ang gusto ng Cinemalaya. At of course, kung ito ang filmmaker, na sa halagang ibinibigay nila na P500,000 at okay lang sa ‘yo na papakialamanan ang casting mo, babaguhin ang story mo, na palitan ang script mo, okay lang kung gusto niyong sumali. Pero kung hindi okay sa inyo ‘yun, 'wag kayong sumali," said Reyes, who won Best Screenplay, Best Film and the Audience Choice Award in the Short Feature Category in last year’s Cinemalaya.

 

"Of course as a filmmaker alam ko naman ‘yung vision ko, kung ano ‘yung look na hinahanap ko sa pelikulang gagawin ko," said Reyes, who will continue to make his film independently, raising funds on the website Artiste Connect, as well as with help from his friends. 

 

"Kaya namang gumawa basta may mga kaibigan ka," said Reyes, who aims to raise P143,000 through the website, part of which will be used as honoraria for some of his actors who waived their fees. In terms of equipment, he said he was able to gather enough over the years, and will also borrow from some of his friends. –KG, GMA News