The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival is no stranger to Dennis Marasigan, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Vice President and Artistic Director.
Dennis has been a Cinemalaya alumnus having directed two films in the previous editions of the fest—“Sa North Diversion” (2005) and “Vox Populi” (2010).
But during the press conference for the annual event jointly mounted by CCP and Cinemalaya Foundation, Marasigan sat in the panel as an office of the state agency on arts and culture.
According to Dennis, Cinemalaya is a public festival. “This is for the Filipino people, for the movie-going public,” he said.
Since the film event is public, the entire population of the Philippines is invited to come and watch the films to be shown, for the first time, at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) from August 4 t0 13, 2023.
PICC is a public estate to it welcomes the Filipinos to its fold and to savor and enjoy the hopes and promises of independent filmmaking in the country.
For the past eighteen years, CCP had hosted Cinemalaya but since the entire building of the state agency on arts and culture is being rehabilitated, PICC was picked up as the new house of the fest.
But since the shuttle jeeps that transported riders and other passengers to the CCP Grounds from Taft Avenue and back particularly doing the raging of the COVID-19 pandemic have been eliminated, there are no public transports that service the riding public at the moment.
CCP and Cinemalaya, according to Marasigan, have assigned shuttle buses to provide for Cinemalaya watchers from a particular point of pick and drop-off corner to PICC but it has to be determined yet as of press time.
“We would like to engage the larger audiences to patronize and to never miss this year’s Cinemalaya,” shared Dennis, also an actor, writer, director, producer, stage designer and other creative responsibilities.
Marasigan disclosed that as a public office, the annual budget for the CCP has been cut down and it will definitely affect the performances of his institution including the collaboration of CCP and Cinemalaya. The 19th year of Cinemalaya will bring once more the awaited screenings of ten (10) short films and ten (10) full-length features in competition.