Still brewing
It’s the first time I came across Sinewaya while surfing the internet.
Ang Sinewaya ay isang kolektibo ng mga mahihilig manood ng pelikula at naniniwala sa makapangyarihang potensiyal ng sining na odyo-biswal. Ang Sinewaya rin ay isang online film journal na naglalathala ng mga kritikal na sanaysay hinggil sa masiglang ugnayan ng pelikula at lipunan. [about SINEWAYA]
There are a lot of worthy reads among the insightful reviews and articles. This one, “You Say You Want a (Digital) Revolution?” by Kenneth Guda, particularly catches my attention because I feel like it takes a hit at aspiring filmmakers. (And as a film student, I feel some sort of urge to react).
It is easy to understand why they call filmmaking the “new rock n’ roll.” Pinoys have been enamoured with Hollywood for more than half a century, but it is only in recent years that filmmaking has drawn this much interest from the youth. It is probably the “new rock n’ roll” in that many young filmmakers aspire for the usual life of fame, fortune and juvenile debauchery with the same wide-eyed innocence as the proverbial 90s garage band.
[...] What saddens us, therefore, that many young, aspiring filmmakers still buy this bullshit.
Many young filmmakers continue to aspire for fame and toiling in the digital realm, hoping to eventually break into the “big time” - pay a high price for their naivete, ultimately pawning their wide-eyed idealism at the altar of compromise. The best artistic minds are everday lost to advertising agencies, television sitcoms, and other commercial endeavors.
(There’s another article of the same author in the about page which has a similar tone and message).
I don’t understand sometimes why there’s so much contempt against mainstream cinema or making money with filmmaking. I just feel discouraged when some people easily throw he ’sellout’ bash to anyone who ‘foolishly’ assimilates himself into the “putrid world of commercial distribution” or into filmmaking as part of a “capitalist philosophy”. IF I become a filmmaker, I would want to recover my financial investment and even make a profit out of the movies I’d produce. I’m sorry for being capitalist-minded. Ultimately, I need the profit to finance the production of more movies. Even the revered Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal went into making forgettable takilya-tested movies in between their socio-realist classics, right? Yes, I realize that there is a perceived lack of output among film students/young filmmakers of socially relevant movies that confront present realities–perceived being the operative word. It’s just that I don’t think fulfilling a social responsibility as a filmmaker and wanting to earn a profit as one should be mutually exclusive of each other.
Of course, one can just easily call me young and naive film student.
Yes, young and naïve film student.
The reason why there is “contempt” for mainstream cinema is not really that it has generally bad or distasteful output, but because of focus orientation. Instead of the artist expressing himself (in this case the filmmaker), the focus is to tell stories that are tried and tested, in ways that are redundant and well… formulaic. Capitalism might not be exclusive of creativity, but sometimes, it restricts it to appeal to a bigger audience.
And someone like you should realise that if you really want to boost your blog ratings. (not that you were really creative to begin with)
out of curiousity, is BA Film and Audio-Visual Communication a quota program?
hm, ang alam ko, hindi. pero i think theres still a limit as to how many people any course would/can accomodate
Capitalism is the only way to go. Mahihirap lang ang nagpu-push ng communism. Lugi kase sila sa capitalist perspective.
Walang INGGITAN!
well…let me see…sabi ng mga classmates ko sa grad skul na film majors, kelangan talaga ng kapital para makagawa ka ng pelikula at kelangan ding kumita para may pang-invest ka sa paggawa pa ng pelikula sa susunod. walang saysay kung mga may pinag-aralan lang o film elitists lang ang makakapanood nito at makakakuha ng mensahe mo; sabi nga nila gusto din nilang mapanood ng nakararami ang pelikulang ginagawa nila. ang sabi pa nga, pano mo maitataas ang antas ng kaisipan ng viewers kung ili-limit mo lang sa mga taong katulad mo na edukado? so mejo hindi ako sang-ayon sa mga nagpapakaelitista na mga taong nanunuya ng kapwa porke gustong mag-mainstream. ang sining ay para sa lahat, hindi lang sa mga edukado. kung gusto mong maraming taong maka-appreciate ng ‘mataas’ na antas ng pelikula mo, dapat maipalabas sa mga major na sinehan ito. hindi sa nagpapaka-sell-out ka…pagiging praktikal lang ito. yun nga lang, ang pagiging totoo mo sa sining mo ay masusukat sa kung paano ka makipag-bargain sa producer mo…kung isa-sacrifice mo ba ang sining mo/mensahe mo para lang magkapaera. yun lang po. bow.
DR. FIL: hm, I find it really unfair though that we’re easy to generalize ideas like these as simply communist or proletatriat in nature.
LUTHIEN: Exactly. I agree
Thanks for the comment on my article in Sinewaya.
I think, though, that you may have misunderstood some points I wrote. The article was not meant to take a swipe at aspiring filmmakers, but at the very condition of filmmaking today. Nakakalungkot na maraming magagaling na produkto ng film schools ang nagsisimula sa magandang hangaring makalikha ng pelikula but end up working for ad agencies, cheesy tv shows, etc. Sayang ng talento na maari sanang pakinabangan. The problem is not that filmmakers make money out of their films, but that many filmmakers and producers make films to make money. Ito ang ibig sabihin ni Jonathan Beller na “cinema as money that thinks.” Nagiging kapital na ang sining at anumang porma ng kultural na ekspresiyon, at ito ang malalang problema. Ang paninindigan ng Sinewaya, hindi dapat ikalakal ang sining dahil ito ang makakasira sa kasiningan at relevance nito. Sa halip na genuine na pangangailangan ng lipunan ang tinutugunan ng sining, ang tinututugunan na nito ay pagkamal ng kita. Hindi naman talaga problema (sa yugtong ito ng ating lipunan) na kumita ang filmmaker. At tama lamang na kumita siya para makapagpatuloy sa paglilikha. Pero hindi at the expense of his or her film.
Maraming bansa na malaki ang suporta ng gobyerno sa film industry nila, tulad ng South Korea (kaya siguro masigla ang paglabas ng Korean films at Korenaovelas) at Cuba, kung kaya malayang nakakapaglikha ang filmmakers nila nang hindi masyado iniisip kung kikita ito o hindi. Kahit yung dalawang filmmakers na binanggit mo, si Brocka at Bernal, they made great films during periods na hindi kumikita ang mga pelikula nila, dahil bina-ban sa Pilipinas (in Brocka’s case, Kapit sa Patalim, and Orapronobis, na hindi pa ever na-commercially release dito sa bansa) o talagang hindi kumikita.
Sa mga nabanggit mong artikulo, ni hindi ko pa nga dine-demand sa filmmakers na maging socially aware o relevant. Naniniwala ang Sinewaya na ang social condition na kinikilusan ng filmmaker ay lalabas at lalabas sa gawa niya kahit itago pa niya ito. It is Sinewaya’s main critical agenda to lay bare these social conditions from which the films arise.
rock on kenneth!
makakatulong kung susubukan mong bungkalin at pag aralan ang ugat at sanhi ng kapitalismo.=D
para kay Dr. fil
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