The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
It seems the Metro Manila Film Festival’s (MMFF) disqualification of Erik Matti’s acclaimed film Honor Thy Father from its Best Picture race last month has turned out to be a good thing.
Last week, the House Metro Manila Development Committee held a hearing on the alleged irregularities behind the controversial disqualification. The revelations made at that hearing not only shocked lawmakers, but also many Filipino film lovers on social media.
First, there’s the appearance of conflict of interest pointed out by Rep. Danilo S. Fernandez of Laguna province, a member of the Honor Thy Father cast who filed the resolution directing the House of Representatives to hold that hearing.
That conflict concerned Dominic Du, Motion Picture Anti-Piracy Council president and a longtime member of the MMFF Executive Committee (ExeCom), and high-profile lawyer Josabeth “Joji” Alonso, who produced Walang Forever and Buy Now, Die Later, two of the eight entries in last year’s festival.
In his report, Marc Jayson Cayabyab of the Philippine Daily Inquirer wrote that Fernandez had alleged that Du was a client of Alonso, as well as “an incorporator of film distributor Axinite Digicinema, which distributed” the two films.
Walang Forever and Buy Now, Die Later won Best Picture and Second Best Picture honors, respectively, at the 41st MMFF Awards ceremony on Dec. 27.
Second, there’s the lack of due process in disqualifying Honor Thy Father. This was strongly suggested by MMFF jury member Carmen Musngi’s disclosure that Du and fellow ExeCom member Marichu Maceda attended the jury’s deliberations on Dec. 21 and told them that Matti’s movie was disqualified.
This happened five days before the committee officially informed Honor Thy Father producer Ronald Stephen “Dondon” Monteverde of the movie’s disqualification for not disclosing its “participation [in] the Cinema One Originals Festival 2015 as the opening film;” and a week after, Maceda said, the MMFF special working and rules committees recommended that move.
This denied the filmmakers the chance to appeal the decision within 10 working days, as provided by MMFF rules.
Du has denied influencing the jury in its deliberations. Patty Pasion of the Rappler news website reported that Du had said he was only tasked by the two festival committees to explain to the jurors why they were recommending Honor Thy Father’s exclusion from the Best Picture category, and that he and Maceda were only at the Dec. 21 meeting to look after their needs.
Then there was the revelation that the MMFF’s beneficiaries would only get between P23 million and P24 million out of the P1.02 billion in gross income the festival generated during its nearly two-week run, as CNNPhilippines’s Joyce Ilas wrote in a report.
These beneficiaries are several film-industry groups, including the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), the Movie Workers Welfare Fund (Mowelfund) and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).
Worse, the funds these groups get from the festival don’t arrive on time. Not only that, actor and FAP president Leo Martinez had told the hearing’s attendees that they only receive those funds in tranches.
It was too much for the legislators. The Metro Manila Development Committee later approved a motion to create a technical working group that would deal with the next edition of the festival and the rules governing it, effectively abolishing the committees that handled the previous one.
To maximize that motion’s impact, screenwriter and independent-film producer Moira Lang probably put it best on her Facebook account: The House will move to “abolish the MMFF in its present state and give birth to a new, improved, law-abiding festival for the Filipino people.”
And how does Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Emerson S. Carlos, whose agency organizes the MMFF, feel about that motion? I tried to reach him at his office last week, but he was beyond reach. I suspect he’s unsure on how to best respond.
Inevitable
All things considered, the MMFF had this coming. For far too long the organizers and film-production firms have strayed from the festival’s original purpose: to showcase, during the Christmas season, the finest (emphasis mine) Filipino films that can entertain and enlighten—that are both imaginative and illuminating—without the threat of foreign competition. Too many MMFF entries in the past decade or so have proven this.
We all know this: There’s nothing wrong with trying to earn a profit. Who wouldn’t want that? It only becomes wrong—and, in the context of a festival, very much so—when only box-office potential dictates how a movie gets made. I have yet to hear of any other film festival, here or overseas, that has revenue generation as its main aim. Such a goal fosters greed—never a good thing, no matter what Wall Street’s Gordon Gecko says.
If there’s one thing the 41st MMFF proved, it’s how much greed has consumed it. The reported ticket-swapping involving My Bebe Love and Beauty and the Bestie? The hasty pullout of supposedly underperforming entries from some cinemas in favor of the more profitable ones? They have greed marked all over them.
I am optimistic about moves to reform the MMFF. It’s long overdue. But I expect some—I’m thinking film-studio and local government executives—will oppose it, albeit in private. They may argue: Why mess with a money-making venture? They’ll not yield without a fight.
It’s vital, then, that the technical working group is a diverse and inclusive one. Fresh blood is needed. No word yet on who will actually join this group (I think Matti is a possibility, if there are no restrictions on non-lawmakers), but it’s safe to say the MMDA is excluded from it. In fact, it should be. The agency has far greater problems—worsening traffic, corrupt traffic enforcers and irate commuters, among many, many others—to deal with (and clumsily, at that) than the MMFF.
The list of possible changes is limitless. The number of official MMFF entries expanding to, say, 12. The creation of an out-of-competition section, just like in other film festivals, where more commercial movies can be screened. The completion of entries before they’re selected for competition. A more rigorous screening of potential jury members. A partial relaxation of the ban on foreign films. Maybe an end to the now-needless Parade of Stars?
And to think that just seriously thinking of all these wouldn’t have been possible without Honor Thy Father’s disqualification.
That’s why I think the crime drama’s disqualification is, ultimately, a good thing. It had set in motion an ongoing series of events that could help nurture and sustain the Philippine film industry in the long run. There would be challenges, of course, but if the industry insiders seeking reforms play their cards right, they would overcome them.
If reforms are implemented, then 2016 would be remembered as the year the MMFF ceases to exist and a better, more just film festival emerges in its place.
Let’s pray that happens, and soon.