In a small municipality in the outskirts of Leyte, Aling Nena gives her eldest daughter a warm hug and her eight-month-old son a kiss on his forehead. She asks her daughter to take good care of her son before she steps into the sidecar of a rickety tricycle. Aling Nena’s children wave goodbye as she contemplates the life she is about to live in Manila. The tricycle drives down the thoroughfare to the nearest barrio, and in the foreground, a prismatic view of Leyte’s mountain ridges extends as far as the eyes can see.
This is just one of the many plotlines local independent films have bent towards over the past several years. Today, what we know as the “indie film” has changed. While indie films of the yesteryears have often been viewed as “highly intellectual” or “pretentious” for its depth and ambiguity, today’s Filipino indie films have broken out of these conventional notions, delving into more relatable topics such as romance, national history and identity, body image, and everyday struggles.
Through the years, our Pinoy love for movies has spawned many celebrated indie film festivals such as the widely acclaimed Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, as well as Cinema One Originals, Cinemanila International Film Festival, and other regional film festivals in different parts of the Philippines. And as if the film festivals we have today weren’t enough, yet another one has joined the picture.
CineFilipino is an independent film festival that tries to support films created by up-and-coming Filipino filmmakers. It also attempts to bring indie productions beyond the “indie community,” and closer to the more general Filipino viewership. CineFilipino features films that reveal the Filipino identity and culture—through topics like poverty, media, and Philippine myths and legends—in the hopes of catalyzing relevant discussions among audiences.
Revolutionizing the reel
Only on its fifth year, CineFilipino is one of the youngest film festivals in the country. In the years since its inception, CineFilipino’s goal has always been to provide not only established artists, but also budding filmmakers, with the opportunity to showcase the meaning of Filipino culture and identity through their works.
CineFilipino was originally conceived by Ray Espinosa, TV5’s acclaimed president and chief executive producer. In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, CineFilipino consultant Tony Gloria claims that before film festivals like Cinemalaya were created, it was a struggle for indie filmmakers to launch their own projects—not to mention deal with the exorbitant production and marketing costs.
This is exactly what CineFilipino aims to alleviate. Unlike Cine Mabuhay, which awards only one winner, CineFilipino confers awards to a total of eight winning filmmakers or their films. In addition to this, the selected eight are each endowed with grants worth Php 1.5 million, staying true to CineFilipino’s advocacy of giving assistance to rising players in the film industry. However, as CineFilipino is a festival for independent films, there is a catch: All films must maintain a production cost ceiling of Php 3.5 M.
This isn’t the only fact that sets CineFilipino apart from its other counterparts in the film industry. CineFilipino is also known for its responsiveness towards the digitalization of the film industry. Whereas the previous festivals only included feature-length and short film sections, today, CineFilipino has opened the gates of the film industry to comprise the mobile, online content, documentary, and television series categories.
We see here the advent of a new era in Filipino indie film. Not only is CineFilipino embracing technological advances, but also reaching out to much wider audiences by steering clear of the bigger film festivals, like the Metro Manila Film Festival and Cinemalaya. The festival is set to run from March 16 to 23 at Gateway Mall, Eastwood Cinemas, Newport Theater, Lucky Chinatown Mall, and Robinsons Galleria.
Young blood
Being a celebration of the richness and diversity of Filipino identity and culture, CineFilipino presents a wide range of topics and titles. Besides more light-hearted films like Jason Paul Laxamana’s Ang Taba Ko Kasi—a clever and comedic discussion of body image—there are also films with dark and slightly sinister themes like filmmaker and full-time Filipino Instructor Alvin Yapan’s Ang Tulay Ng San Sebastian, which brings Filipino horror stories and myths to life.
However, the wonder of CineFilipino also comes from the fact that many of the entries come from young filmmakers who have yet to break into the industry. Bob Guarina and Allison Barretto, both senior communication majors, are new to the film festival scene. Their short films, Katok and XXX, are two films of this year’s youngest filmmakers for the “Short Features” category, which will be shown in select theaters in the upcoming festival.
Barretto’s short film entitled XXX stands for “eksplosibong ekslusibong expose” (explosive, exclusive expose). It allows viewers to hear about the rise and fall of a seamstress-turned-beauty queen’s life through news reports and interviews on the radio.
When also asked about his film, Guarina puts it into simple words, saying, “It’s a story that follows a kid, first day on the job working for a syndicate group that exploits the poor and disabled. It plays on the commonly accepted notion of knocking twice when there’s a beggar outside your car. So, that’s why it’s called Katok [Knock].”
Guarina and Barretto are only two of the many budding filmmakers in the country. Websites and online applications like Vimeo and YouTube host hundreds of videos from young Filipino creatives who wish to test out and share their work with online audiences.
Guarina says, “So, people have just started making films that are constantly getting better and better na even younger people can enter into the industry much faster. [Because], at our age, it’s not expected that we can get into a film festival, diba? That’s something that people before probably couldn’t do.”
“Midstream”
Aside from its response to the digitalization of the industry, and its promotion of up-and-coming filmmakers, CineFilipino also seeks to bring the independent film closer to mass audiences. It tries to go against the stigma that Philippine independent films are deeply symbolic and difficult to understand by showing films that are audience-friendly and easier to digest.
As Barretto explains, “indie” originally refers to any film produced by smaller, non-commercial groups with smaller budgets. However, in the Philippines, it has become its own genre. She says, “Just because of a little thematic depth, and a little artistic difference from mainstream romantic comedies, comedies, and horror films, people think, ‘Ay, shet! Indie. Ibang-iba yan!’ [‘Oh! Indie. That’s something else!’]”
Ayo Supangco, current director of the Eugenio Lopez Jr. Center for Multimedia Communication, explains that the “indie” aesthetic was different pre-2011. He says, “Mainstream was all about love teams. But indie cinema was all about where people wanted to see something darker, or some themes would be more about escape.” But today, the line that separates independent and mainstream cinema is beginning to blur.
At a forum entitled “Indie na Mainstream?” held last February 18 at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, Director and Vice Head of the National Committee on Cinema Teddy Co coined the term “midstream.” He does so in reference to the “stream” of films that are neither clearly perceived as indie nor as mainstream (e.g. Antoinette Jadaone’s That Thing Called Tadhana and Jerrold Tarog’s Heneral Luna).
Yapan says in a CineFilipino interview that the festival is “trying to straddle the world of both indie and mainstream.” The festival recognizes the need not only for students and the upper classes to view the works of local artists, but also for the masses to have a greater and deeper appreciation for independent productions. CineFilipino tries to promote Filipino identity and culture, not just for the few, but for all Filipinos.
It is sign of the times that the Filipino wants to break some barriers – artistic or otherwise. Filmmakers who strive to achieve depth but also accessibility have a very tough job; but I believe if all goes rightly, you can have a great film that embodies what we love about the two “camps” of films – all the while. making us question why he had this division in the first place.