By Sophia Angeline G. Delantero, UC student
Growing up, along with CDs and DVDs, I have seen the magical power of Cinema One to deliver local films and indie movies to the masses, especially me as a kid who has an insane love for Philippine Cinema.
It forced people to check the schedule for today, and even for tomorrow, so they could wait for it at a certain time and be able to watch it in full length. Its power also included the ability to hold a person without paying for a subscription, aside from the affordable cable TV back then, it was all about their interest and intention to watch a piece made by our national artists, directors, scriptwriters, and producers.
This accessibility gave many Filipinos a chance to appreciate masterpieces before TikTok and YouTube took over everything, not to mention the streaming services online that make you pay more than a thousand just to not get ads that would ruin the whole scenario.
Cinemalaya, as executed recently, was only available in limited cinemas, not even reaching neighboring cities and provinces. Thus, creating a ripple effect of making Philippine Cinema the villain, with comments on Reddit and Twitter about how much local films lack depth, how they lack the story and human connection, but really, it is only that way because of their inaccessibility.
This also pushes through the agenda of pirating films because the only way to reach them is to access them illegally. Through the evolution and wonders of technology, local films are still in the shadows as of today. There might be a few online, but those are only the mainstream ones that they would want to show us, those with a budget. However, for those who are relying only on grants, they have stayed hidden from the spotlight, waiting for someone spectacularly niche for them to be discovered.
“Tangkilikin ang sariling atin” is not the phrase that we live by today. It is so much harder to do this, especially if we cannot reach the locality of our own creative productions. We cannot fully blame this on the filmmakers, as they are also trying to source out support that is not guaranteed to be given to them.
For what it’s worth, these films are the embodiment of our struggles, our humor, and our culture. Hence, maybe Filipinos did not stop watching Philippine Cinema; they just stopped finding it in the places where they used to see it.**
