A call for the MMFF

Christmas is for children. And yet, some people are disappointed that entries to this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival lack this magic ingredient that will make the annual event the success that it has been over the past years.

 

MMFF Executive Committee (Execom) member and marketing head Moira Lang disagrees.

 

“At least four films will be enjoyed by kids,” he said in a recent Pandesal Forum with media at movie enthusiast Wilson Lee Flores’s Kamuning Bakery Café.  

 

He announced that he’s excited for a new category in this year’s awards. The Children’s Choice Award is reserved for the best “G” (General Audience) and “PG” (Parental Guidance) film, as declared by a jury made up of children and pre-teens.

 

The challenge for filmmakers, therefore, lies in coming up with more good kiddie films.

 

MMFF spokesperson and Mowelfund (Movie Workers Welfare Foundation Inc.)  head Boots Anson-Rodrigo, also defended the MMFF against attacks about the “absence of Christmas spirit” in the entries.

 

Again, the perception is that the dearth of kiddie films in the indie-dominated lineup dampens the Christmas spirit.

  

“The Christmas spirit means more than laughter, more than hilarity and mirth,” she defines the oft-used term. “We can find the Christmas spirit in the saddest scene, in poverty, tragedy, darkness, and sorrow.”

 

She also explained that a film that moves the audience to tears can be related to the Christmas spirit.  Remember, she points out, the first Christmas was sad and lonely. And yet, people the world over celebrate Jesus Christ’s birth in a lowly manger with joy and parties left and right.

 

Yes, she admits. Today’s MMFF films need more help than usual. 

 

Seasoned film producers like Regal’s Mother Lily Monteverde and Star Cinema’s Malou Santos say that their group and the MMFF heads have agreed to divide the Magic 8 – or the official entries – between four mainstream and four indie movies.

 

READ: MMFF 2016 entries selection reveals change has come

 

Thus, they felt betrayed when the list of the official entries consisted mostly of indie films.

 

Boots replied with a statement that said she doesn’t know of any such agreement. She added that the Execom gave the MMFF Selection Committee a free hand in choosing the official entries “once policies, criteria, and guidelines were discussed” with the said committee.

 

She’s glad the need to push the MMFF even more this year has strengthened the bond between producers and MMFF officers. It has pushed them to think omnibus.

Omnibus trailers featuring all eight entries will soon be released.

 

Ricky Davao sees the role of television in this time of great need.

 

“We can ask major networks to show the omnibus MMFF trailers in their top-rated shows.”

 

Another asks, “Why not offer super tickets to companies, which can give them as Christmas gifts to clients?  These tickets will allow the bearers to watch all the MMFF entries.”

 

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. 

 

The MMFF can approach interest groups, like the LGBT community, to sponsor a block screening for the gay film Die Beautiful. An OFW group can hold a special screening of Sunday Beauty Queens, which tells the story of Filipina domestic helpers in Hong Kong.

 

It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness. The MMFF has made its decision.  Instead of wringing our hands and protesting its supposed lack of Christmas spirit,  we can do our share.

 

Let’s troop to the cinemas from December 25, 2016  to January 7, 2017. Let’s bring family and friends with us.  Let’s talk about what we saw and post it on social media, not once, but many times over.

 

Our movie industry needs us. Now. Let’s not fail it, and the producers, stars, the humble movie worker,  Mowelfund, the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Motion Picture Anti-Piracy Council and the Film Development Council of the Philippines who depend on it.

 

It’s our duty, and our big responsibility.  

 

If the MMFF succeeds, it’s us, the moviegoers,  who will reap its reward. If it  fails, we would be richer in experience, and apply this year’s lessons to MMFF 2017.