Wishful thinking for Philippine cinema

When Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc were brutally murdered in their home on September 1, we all suffered a great and terrible loss — not just their close friends and family, but all of us. For not only were they two young people in love, the salt of the earth, and finer friends you couldn’t find anywhere. They were kindred spirits from different parts of the globe who had somehow, miraculously found each other through their love of cinema, and their tireless efforts in championing the cause of a healthy film industry, especially in their places of origin: Alexis here with many published articles in magazines and newspapers, as well as his website criticine.com, and Nika with her film magazine

(Screen) in Slovenia. What follows is an addendum from an article published in

magazine in July 2008.

“The Letter I Would Love To Read To You In Person” has since become one of Alexis’s defining works. Certainly, it is his most personal and moving work, written as a letter to his beloved when they still lived continents apart.

The letter and its addendum were published in edited form. Below is the full definitive version that Alexis preferred, and it is the first time to be published in a national newspaper. In it he writes with a clear passion and love for the industry. He had no ulterior motives or hidden agenda, only the desire to see the industry shake off its barnacles and bad habits. He had the guts and temerity to name names and single out specific problems because so much more could be done with the resources already at our disposal. It is hoped that we consider seriously what he asks of us here, whether they are pipe dreams or wishes that may yet be fulfilled with a little elbow grease and honesty and a lot of hard work.

As Alexis has said, “There is much to repay.”  — Ramon De Veyra

ADDENDUM

By Alexis Tioseco

I wish that the Film Development Council of the Philippines would understand the value of the money they’re given and consider going to Paris and spending P5 million of their P25 million allotment for a showcase given by a young festival an investment, and not just a vacation.They support filmmakers with finished films to go abroad to festivals for the pride they bring their country — I wish instead they would support their films locally, and help them get seen by larger Filipino audiences. I cry for the loss of Manuel Conde’s Juan Tamad films. I cry for a country that can’t convince a single Filipino-American who owns the only known print of Conde’s Genghis Khan in its original language to return or sell the film back to its mother country.

I cry for generations of Filipinos, myself included, that can no longer see Gerry De Leon’s Daigdig ng Mga Api, and instead have scans of movie ads to admire on the Internet. I cry for a country that lost Lamberto Avellana’s Prinsipe Amante. I mourn a heritage that has allowed through neglect the prints of Mario O’Hara’s Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos and Peque Gallaga’s Oro, Plata, Mata to turn flush sepia. I cry for a Union Bank and University of the Philippines that conspire in apathy to let the master negatives of treasures produced by Bancom to rot in rooms only air-conditioned half the day, and in cans untouched for years and years. I pray for a senator or congressman to take the courageous step of drafting a bill to help establish a National Film and Sound archive. I pray a city government or even enterprising and concerned theater owners would consider setting aside 50 centavos or a peso of each ticket to go toward the preservation of our national audio-visual heritage. There have been flood taxes siphoned from movie tickets, for crying out loud; this should be easy!

I wish Cinemalaya — which, thanks to the media and government mileage behind it has a great festive excitement — would actually put their efforts in service of Philippine cinema, and not their own self-involved attempt to start a micro-industry.

I wish filmmakers would stop listening to Robbie Tan.

I wish Cinema One, which takes more risks, gives more money, and often produces better films than Cinemalaya, would actually give filmmakers some rights to their work and stop swindling them.

I wish Lav Diaz had larger budgets to maneuver and shoot with.

I wish Raymond Red would get to make Makapili and return to making fantastic shorts in the experimental mode.

I wish Mike De Leon would make another movie… Please… we need it.

I wish Roxlee would get enough money to buy the time to make an animated feature.

I wish everyone would buy a copy of Nicanor Tiongson and Cesar Hernando’s The Cinema of Manuel Conde.

I wish there were more books on Philippine cinema.

I wish there were a series of classic screenplays that would get published.

I wish Cinefilipino would have put out Maalaala Mo Kaya with the reels in proper order.

I wish Cinefilipino would have put out their Brocka titles with just a little bit of care and affection, providing some writing on the film or some features, and didn’t just throw them out there to earn.

I wish Nestor Torre would open his eyes…I wish the Manunuri books on Philippine cinema in the ‘70s and ‘80s would go back in print.

I wish the Manunuri actually cared about Philippine cinema today.

I wish the Manunuri actually reviewed films instead of just giving out awards.

I wish the Young Critics Circle were actually young.

I wish the Young Critics Circle were actually critics.

I wish Francis “Oggs” Cruz, Richard Bolisay,

and Dodo Dayao would get space in the

broadsheets because they’re far more inter-

esting than anyone writing regularly there today.

I wish Noel Vera would move back.

I wish Hammy Sotto were still alive.

I wish Hammy Sotto’s manuscripts would get published.

I wish Jo Atienza were still in Manila.

I wish we had a fully supported Film Museum.

I wish we had a Cinematheque.

I wish the UP Film Center had better seats, and showed good films.

I wish more non-filmmakers from the Philippines would get to travel to festivals.

I wish film were taught in high schools.

I wish Teddy Co would get the recognition he deserves for his selfless work.

I wish Teddy Co would write more as his ideas deserve to be recorded.

I wish co-ops would co-operate.

I wish Khavn De La Cruz would get to make his musical EDSA XXX.

I wish that Max Santiago feature would get made, and that the shorts would finally come to my hands on DVD (Hi, Marla!).

I wish Tad Ermitano never stops writing and playing in his cave.

I wish Lourd De Veyra would continue writing on actors and cinema.

I wish Raymond Lee’s UFO success.

I wish we had more regional feature films, and more support for regional filmmakers.

I wish everyone would watch When Timawa Meets Delgado.

I wish someone would lower MTRCB rates for screenings fees, especially for festivals.

Iwish someone, anyone, would make a good, thought-provoking film about the Philippine upper class.

I wish Ketchup Eusebio would get more leading roles.

I wish Elijah Castillo would get to do a lot more films, soon.

I wish Cesar Hernando would get to transfer Botika, Bituka.

I wish filmmakers had some integrity and tell Viva to screw itself when offered another exploitation film.

I wish more people could see the film Bontoc Eulogy.

I wish Vic Del Rosario weren’t presidential advisor on Entertainment, given the schlock they produce, and yes, that includes films starring First Son Mikey Arroyo.

I wish Star Cinema would stop — just stop.

I wish there were a film library that people could go to and read books on cinema.

I wish the MMFF were not handled by the same people who install public urinals (admittedly useful).

I wish the MMDA didn’t call those circles and boxes Art.

I wish that MMDA Art wasn’t so much better than every MMFF film.

I wish Mother Lily didn’t have a monopoly on the Metro Manila Film Festival.

I wish Mother Lily took better care, or rather took care at all, of the good films she produced in the past.

I wish Mother Lily would get to see Raya’s Long Live Philippine Cinema!

 Or maybe not.

I wish that the Hammy Sotto-led Philippine

Cinema In The ‘90s book with interviews

and a complete filmography, which has

been completed for several years, would finally see print.

I wish Raymond Red would still get to shoot on celluloid.

I wish all the old Mowelfund shorts — including the works of Regiben Romana, the Alcazaren Brothers, Louie Quirino and Donna Sales, Raymond Red and Noel Lim — would come out on DVD.

I wish a book would be written about all of the Mowelfund shorts.

I wish a book of Philippine poster art would be released.

I wish, and would love to read the rest of Nick Deocampo’s projected four- to five-volume history of Philippine cinema — at least someone is writing it.

I wish there were a pure film studies course available in the Philippines.

I wish that venues that are censorship- (and therefore MTRCB-fee) exempt would understand the vital role that they play.

I wish we had a regular print, film journal. Why don’t we? I wish more people would see the films of Lav Diaz, especially students. If my humanities students can endure them, I’m sure film majors can.

I wish more film teachers were approaching cinema from cinema.

I wish less directors who compromised, didn’t.

I wish Kiri Dalena good health to direct (and shoot as DP) more films, though I wish they were less propagandistic.

I wish R.A. Rivera would get to make his first feature soon.

I wish Quark Henares would refrain from selling out again, because if he doesn’t he can be one of the important ones.

I wish more people would get to see In Da Red Korner. It deserves to be reconsidered.

I wish Rogue would cut down their featuring of foreign films in the gallery section when there is so much to write about locally that doesn’t get covered in other media beyond sloppy journalism.

I wish the government would sponsor DVD releases of the surviving films of Lamberto Avellana, Gerardo De Leon and all other classics that still exist.

I wish FPJ Productions would again screen the footage of Gerry De Leon’s unfinished Juan De La Cruz.

I wish less filmmakers were compromised.

I wish more filmmakers would admit when they were.

I wish we focused our attention more on audience education, development, and literacy, than on dumbing down films to pander to them.

I wish a certain festival in December didn’t consider box office as a criteria for its main prize, which comes with rewards. We don’t give cultural awards to Wowowee, do we? Well, we don’t yet...

I wish I could see how “commercial viability” was computed.

I wish Philippine cinema all the success in the world…

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To read more of Alexis’s work, visit criticine.com and alexistioseco.wordpress.com.