Cinemalaya according to Philip Cheah

MANILA, Philippines - Since the beginning of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival in 2005, Singaporean film critic and festival programer Philip Cheah has been a fixture – as a jury member, a programer scouting for various foreign film festivals and/or all-around Filipino film enthusiast.

“I spent a lot of my adolescence watching films every week because my brother used to work in 20th Century Fox so I had a cinema pass and for two years I was just watching non-stop,” says Cheah. He also watched films shown at the British Council and Alliance Française and later on joined the Singapore Film Society.

In 1986, Cheah, then a journalist and film reviewer, was tapped to run the Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF). “It was just a case of being in the right place at the right time,” he quips.

With Cheah at its helm, the SIFF focused the spotlight on Asian filmmakers, including Ishmael Bernal and Laurice Guillen. Lino Brocka was on the festival’s jury in 1991, before his fatal car accident.

“Before Cinemalaya began in 2005, I’d invited Laurice Guillen to be on the jury in Singapore. That was an experience that Laurice took back with her to Cinemalaya in terms of how juries are conducted. So in turn, Laurice invited me on the first jury at Cinemalaya,” says Cheah on how he became connected with the festival.

“Who would turn down an offer to sit on the same jury as Eddie Romero? That first year, the Best Film prize went to Doy del Mundo’s Pepot Artista,” he recalls.

Since then, Cheah has witnessed the growth of the festival and has been instrumental in bringing Filipino films around the world, all the while amassing a collection of his signature graphic t-shirts from different festivals and films that have been made since.

“The most important influence it’s had is, because of Cinemalaya, you have a lot more indie film festivals starting,” says Cheah, who has also attended Cine Manila, QCinema, Cinema Rehiyon and more.

What he appreciates about Cinemalaya in particular is the audience concentration at the CCP. “You feel the atmosphere of being with a film-going crowd.”

Cheah adds, “No other Manila-based festival has this impact and I think the CCP as a main venue is a strong reason. It collects people in one place and offers them different choices. But unlike a multiplex, the CCP’s atmosphere is cultural. If you want to take a break between movies, you can attend an exhibition or a talk. Or find like-minded souls wandering through an emporium of cinema.”

Now Cheah is involved in festivals in Shanghai, Hanoi and Jogjakarta, and is in charge of a film program with the National Gallery in Singapore. He is also part of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC).

Part of the jury again for Cinemalaya this year, Cheah recalls some of the standout Filipino films for him in the previous years:

“Limbunan by Teng Mangansakan was an eye opener for me to the cinema of Southern Philippines. From there, I went on to see Arnel Mardoquio’s Journey of Stars into the Dark Night. I loved Diablo by Mes de Guzman for expressing the intangible and I found Aloy Adlawan’s Room Boy strangely haunting after all these years. When I saw his later films, I realized that he’s intrigued by people in confined spaces.”

Cheah adds, “My favorite year of Cinemalaya was the seventh edition in 2011. The films were so strong that even a powerful film such as Eduardo Roy’s Baby Factory didn’t win. The other great films were Marlon Rivera’s The Woman in the Septic Tank, Isda by Adolf Alix, Jeffrey Jeturian’s Bisperas. The choices and breadth of subject matter were staggering.”

It is the diversity of Philippine cinema, its “dynamic expression,” that Cheah most appreciates about Filipino films. “Philippine cinema covers almost every imaginable subject… it is a broad-based film culture, from the very minute to the very macro.”

Cheah says Philippine films can hold their own in the international scene. “The issue is a lack of exposure… Culturally, the Philippines remains a mystery to most fest programmers. It normally changes once they have visited the country.”

Witnessing Cinemalaya’s growth through the years, Cheah says, “I think it’s time for the festival to have a rebel or outsider section. Just as there is a Slamdance or a Director’s Fortnight. Philippines has so many outsider personalities that a section like this will really rock!”

Cheah muses, this “rebel section” could represent the voice of the filmmakers in a more personal way, exuding true independent spirit.

“Normally there’s a section of people who feel underrepresented by the establishment. I think that if you balance it out by creating another section where they are free to program themselves – maybe every year, different film directors are brought in to do the selection – it can be very interesting,” he says.

Moving forward, Cheah says the future of film is moving across platforms. “There is no more monopoly for audience – the audience is now found everywhere – whether they are watching on mobile, or cable, or on DVD.” This multi-platform framework is, in turn, changing how filmmakers create their films.

“People are always thinking of vertical growth, not lateral growth. Think of how to spread the wealth, level things out. Thinking has to change fundamentally. We have to think of how to grow together,” Cheah says on what the film industry needs today.

He advises filmmakers, “Stay true to your muse but be generous in accepting another person’s opinion. Find the middle path and you will find your center. What’s really independent is still your spirit. That one cannot be sold off. Have a strong awareness of your independence.”