Of Broken Records and Promises

Eloisa May P. Hernandez

It was a record-breaking year for Philippine cinema in the box-office. Star
Cinemas No Other Woman starring Anne Curtis, Derek Ramsey, and Cristine Reyes
generated buzz among the Filipino audience, replete with one-liners and quotable quotes
enriching, or diminishing, the lexicon of many teenagers. What the film lacked in
profundity, it made up for in the box-office income it grossed 278.39 million pesos1
setting the record at that time as the highest grossing Philippine film of all time. It did not
hold that record for long. Barely a month later, Star Cinemas The Unkabogable Praybeyt
Benjamin starring Vice Ganda earned 331.61 million pesos2 and broke the record
previously held by No Other Woman, making it the highest grossing Philippine film of all
time.3 What does it say about us Filipinos as a film audience that the highest grossing
Philippine film of all time is a grossly humorless and unintelligent portrayal of gay men
in the military? Certainly, it is time to strengthen film literacy in the country.
The number of regular commercially released films in 2011 totaled 29, including
seven films released during the annual Metro Manila Film Festival. Of the 22 films
released before the MMFF, Star Cinema/ABS-CBN Film Productions produced 13 (with
a few collaborations with VIVA Entertainment, APT Entertainment, etc.) while GMA
Films made four (two collaborations with Regal Films), Regal Films did two films and
VIVA Entertainment had one. The dominance of the media conglomerates and
mainstream film companies is apparent with only one film produced by an artist-run
moviemaking company, Origin8 Media. The record-breaking box-office year for Star
Cinema/ABS-CBN conceals the fact that the films produced in 2011, especially the
independently produced, did not do as well at the box office and had abbreviated runs in
the cinema complexes often replaced by Hollywood blockbusters. Only Zombadings and
Ang Babae sa Septic Tank fared relatively well at the box-office.
In addition to the films released regularly, many films, mostly digitally produced,
were screened in several film festivals. Cinema Rehiyon showed 5 films while Cinema
One Originals featured 10 films; Cinemanila International Film Festival screened 7
films (4 Digital Lokal plus films by Lav Diaz, Raya Martin and John Torres).
Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival showed 22 films (9 films in the New
Breed section, 4 in Directors Showcase, 8 in Netpac Competition and the opening film).
Of the eight shortlisted films by the Young Critics Circle Film Desk for 2011, five are
from Cinemalaya4. Even the MMFF had a New Wave section with 5 films including
Haruo, YCC Film Desks Best Film for the year. Boosting the number of films shown in
the Philippines in 2011 are the more than 50 digital films shown in various movie houses

No Other Woman earned more than The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1
The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin earned more than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part Two)
3
according to records of www.boxofficemojo.com
4
Marlon Riveras Ang Babae sa Septic Tank, a Cinemalaya film, was distributed by Star Cinema and had a
good run at the box-office earning 30.27 million.
2

and alternative spaces. Some were part of film festivals and were picked up for regular
release.
Last year displayed indicators of the diffusion of digital cinema in the Philippines.
Allen and Gomery posit, The process of diffusion begins once the technology begins to
receive widespread use within an industry (115). Digitally produced films have
outnumbered 35mm since 2005 with several film festivals and competitions funding and
showcasing them such as Cinemalaya, Cinema One Originals, .mov and Cinemanilas
Digital Lokal. Though not yet widespread, mainstream film companies such as GMA
Films have already produced films such as Yam Laranas The Road using the Red
Mysterium X camera, edited in HD, mastered on 2K and while it was transferred to
35mm for its Philippine release, it was shown internationally on Digital 2K format.
There is an increasing number of digitally produced films and cinema complexes
equipped with digital projectors. There is also a marked increase in the participation in
local and international film festivals of digitally produced films. Award-giving bodies
have also recognized numerous digitally produced films through the years. In fact, all the
eight shortlisted films by the Young Critics Circle Film Desk this year are digitally
produced.
The introduction of the digital technology in Philippine cinema in 1999 addressed
problems in film production; it made filmmaking cheaper and more accessible. The more
daunting challenge now is in distribution and exhibition. Several alternative venues for
screening films have closed shop such as Robinsons Galleria IndieSine (in 2010) and
Mogwai Cinematheque (in August 2011). The Internet in the Philippines remains slow
and unstable, preventing filmmakers from using the Web as a major platform for
distribution and exhibition (such as live streaming, pay per view, paid downloads, etc.).
Filmmakers and producers need to device alternatives to mainstream modes of
distribution and exhibition so that digital cinema can finally fulfill the promise of
accessibility.
The records broken in 2011 at the box-office by films from the media
conglomerates and mainstream film production companies sound hollow if one considers
the fact that these films offer nothing new and radical in terms of ideas and nothing
transformative in terms of ideology. As former YCC Chair Dr. Eli Guieb said in his
report last year, dati naman nang maraming basura buhat sa sektor na ito. And what of
the so-called independent films? Most of their films are digital adult romance and
digital same-sex romance. Dr. Guieb says, Marahil, ang mas higit na kailangang
pagtuunan ng pansin ay ang nawalang pangako ng mga independent films na, ayon sa
mga apologist nito, ay siyang nagbibigay ng bagong pag-asa sa industriya ng pelikula sa
bansa. Where is the promise of more liberative and transformative indie films? The
prognosis on the state of Philippine cinema sounds like a broken record.
Fortunately, there are still promising films and filmmakers in 2011. The YCC
Film Desk had to adroitly sift through the more than 100 films shown in cinema houses,
film festivals, and alternative venues in the Philippines in 2011, to arrive at an initial long
list of 35 films and narrowed down to 8 short-listed films. Six Degrees of Separation from

Lilia Cuntapay stages a critique of Philippine cinema and its star system in an
entertaining fashion. Bisperas is a deft portrayal of a family victimized by robbery during
Christmas Eve, and the inner workings, internal conflict, and power play among the
family members. Tirso Cruz III and Raquel Villavicencio lead the ensemble in a
performance tour de force.
For the first time in 22 years of the YCC Film Desks existence, six different
films won in the six categories. Diana Zubiris portrayal of a nurse in the countrys
busiest maternity hospital is transcendent in the film Bahay Bata. Her quiet, sensitive yet
powerful performance conveys her empathy for the expectant mothers while she walks
around the corridors of Fabella Hospital carrying a personal burden and moral dilemma.
Rody Veras screenplay for Nio is an intelligent, penetrating, nuanced, and layered
telling of the fall of an elite family and/in their grand house. The decadence could not
conceal the decay consuming the architecture and family. Seorita is an attempt at
portraying corruption in the local government level through the eyes of a high-class
transvestite prostitute who acts as finance manager of a mayoral candidate as well as
surrogate mother to a young boy. In Teoriya, we bare witness to a journey as a man
searches for the grave of his father, searches for his identity, and searches for a past in
hopes of knowing, reconciling, and forgiving. Delicately shot, the film does not merely
show us the journey, it makes us feel we are part of it - we are with him through his
travails and discoveries. Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa glides in the use of
dance as a metaphor and as a plot element, a confluence of literature, pedagogy, music,
dance, theater and sexuality. The film receives the Best Sound and Aural Orchestration
award but it is in the silences where the film is most poignant. At the heart of the film is
love love for art, poetry, dance, music, and love for life. Love for everything that is
important and essential to survive the travails of daily life. It is not a perfect film, but the
object of love never is.
The YCC Film Desks Best Film for the year is Haruo, a film by Adolf Alix that
portrays an ex-Yakuzas attempt to escape his past by living an anonymous life in the
populous and hurried city of Manila. The title Haruo means springtime man in
Japanese the quest for atonement, for forgiveness, for a new life - a promise of a new
beginning for the eponymous character. Sadly, that promise will be unfulfilled - Haruos
past catches up on him. Alix triumphs in incorporating several Japanese motifs in the film
such as the haiku and ikebana while following Haruos almost silent and invisible life in
the environs of Manila. Haruo is an example of Philippine cinema being inflected by a
different aesthetic, a promise of Philippine cinema becoming global.

Bibliography
Allen, Robert C. and Douglas Gomery. Film History: Theory and Practice. New York :
McGraw-Hill, 1985.
Guieb, Eulalio R. III. Paglipad, pag-iwas, paglayo, paglisan: Pagpapakatao sa dimakataong lipunan. 21st Annual Circle Citations for Distinguished Achievement in Film,
December 2011.