The Philippine film industry is a thriving sector of passionate storytellers dedicated to portray the Filipino narrative in various forms. For a community blazing with so much fervour for their cra , it’s only tting that someone with equivalent re should hold the fort and represent them. Having been appointed in mid-2016, Liza has gracefully ful lled her duties as the #1 supporter of Filipino lms and has brought our stories all over
the world through her incessant e orts. In light of the government’s proclamation of the Centennial Year of Philippine Cinema from September 12, 2019 to September 11, 2020, we can surely anticipate a year-long celebration of local storytelling.
As a result of the changing tides and behavioural motivations of society, the creative economy has rapidly grown in in uence, in both the global economy and that of the Philippines. Liza shares with adobo magazine her thoughts on this phenomenon, where the industry currently stands in the country’s creative economy, and a sneak peek of what to look out for in 2019.
adobo magazine: As the FDCP Chairperson, could you tell us about the scale of film’s contribution to the creative economy of the Philippines? Where are we in terms of production capabilities?
Liza Diño-Seguerra: The creative industry’s impact in the economy is strengthening, and the film industry’s contribution to it, all the more. In terms of economic contribution this year, the entire Philippine film industry has grossed around 11 billion but 70% of that is foreign films or Hollywood lms, as opposed to probably three billion to four billion coming from the local productions or our studios.
This year, we have a lot of local projects traveling in international lm labs and international project markets, all of which gives us the opportunity to be able to work with international countries for co-productions. It’s also an easy way for us to globalize our content and have the opportunity to create avenues and platforms for our local producers to get exposed to [international] partners.
As we celebrate 100 years of Philippine cinema, how would you describe the current landscape?
It seems we have two very extreme outputs in terms of how we make our films. We have one sector that’s very local, that can get down to the lowest common denominator and get the films to the cinemas and that’s very special because not all countries can do that. We have a very thriving local industry in the sense that our lms that work or that are making money are part of the top 10 highest grossing lms in the country and we have to see that as an asset. But we also have this super extreme arthouse community that’s creating a name for the Philippines for making brave and very edgy content. Filmmakers Lav Diaz, Brillante Mendoza, as well as icons Lino Brocka, Ismael Bernal, and Mike de Leon—they’ve created a facet about the Philippines that’s so raw, and so on the next hundred years of Philippine cinema, we have to nurture the cusp, the ones that can make art house lms but still have commercial viability and that can also be appreciated by the international audience. Now, how can we create the in-between, and I think it’s the films that will create a balance and really define Philippine cinema.
The filmmakers you mentioned—Lino Brocka, Mike de Leon, Ismael Bernal—have always been regarded for their work in what is referred to as “the Second Golden Age of Philippine cinema.” In your honest opinion, are we in the midst of a new renaissance with the filmmakers and content creators today?
Just to be part of that and that happening during my time, is very humbling. Looking back, the year 2016 was so historic for Philippine cinema. We were in the top three lm festivals in the world: Berlin, Cannes, and Venice. (You’ve made it when you’ve gone to Cannes—and won.) In 2016, Lav Diaz won the Silver Bear: Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin Film Festival for ‘Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis’ (A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery), as well as the Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for ‘Ang Babaeng Humayo’. Then Jaclyn Jose won Best Actress for her role in ‘Ma’ Rosa’ at the 69th Cannes Film Festival. All in the same year.
We [the Philippines] are very much relevant in the global scene. We have a lot of partners right now just wanting to make the Philippines a country of focus. Last year, we were the country of focus to six important international lm festivals and this is something wherein we don’t just present—it’s a partnership. Like they want to give a platform for Philippine cinema to have a voice through their festival, and I think that’s beautiful.
Are there people or films in particular that you think played a huge part in entering this third Golden Age?
Brillante Mendoza has really created his own brand of cinema and what he’s doing in terms of the image of the Philippines, his process, his truth is so real and so grounded, and it really created and opened up more opportunities for other lmmakers and for Philippine cinema to be known. The same with Lav Diaz and his signature of slow cinema.
That said, it’s not really about a particular lm or a particular lmmaker. What I’m trying to do as head of FDCP is to create more platforms for our other lmmakers that are strong—as strong and as brave and as talented to be out there. But we have to give opportunities to our other lmmakers that are really creating a lot of notable works and nding their own voice to have that platform.
You have these new filmmakers (like Trev Monteras and Mikail Red) that are understanding, not just the route to prestige and creating films that can be appreciated by these festivals, but creating something that can be palatable and accessible to the wider audience. So I hope that the next hundred years of cinema, parang ganito sana yung maging direction natin kasi mas malaki yung audience na makakapanuod ng pelikula natin. Mas maganda and mas magtravel yung films natin (the direction of our films will go to bigger audiences. It’ll be better if our films travel to) other countries just like Japan and Korea. They’re Asian films, it’s subtitled but people watch it and it’s already a global content like you can see it in the mainstream market.
How do you think the way we tell stories has evolved?
It helps that the Philippines gives so much importance to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. I mean, it’s just self regulation here in the Philippines and that’s beautiful because it allows for the filmmakers to just really be free in telling their stories, and I think we should capitalize on that and we should continue that because that’s what will set us apart from the rest of the world.
It’s no longer about just being able to create and see that lm on screen. I think we’re past that because the opportunity for us to see our lms on screen is already there. Even if we have a very very unique distribution situation, they’re able to showcase their films in cinemas so I think that’s something. But now, how do you make sure that the lifespan of your lm is not just a er its theatrical release. How can you exploit these other windows? These other revenue streams for you to make sure that you can monetize that creativity you know, that intellectual property, that you invested so much on. I think that’s what we want to bring in for the entire industry to understand.
Budget and funding is a common problem among filmmakers, and usually hinders them from finishing or even starting their work. How does the FDCP help with this?
Without any prejudice to my predecessors, perhaps now I want to approach it as really understanding and lling in the gaps. The biggest challenge is [to have] a public fund that is sustainable and that is coming from the industry. Right now, the restructure of the FDCP is inspired by our partnership with Korean Film Council. Korea and France has a very unique model in terms of creating fund for the industry so movie admission tickets are a portion of that, like, let’s say 5% goes to National Film Agency, and National Film Agency redistributes the fund through various programs; development, production, distribution, marketing.
The film industries sustain itself, ngayon kasi parang galit na galit tayo pag kumikita yung mga Hollywood lms kasi parang we think it’s unfair. But in France, the more Hollywood films make money, the more French films are made. So it became like a beautiful relationship in a sense na, sige manood kayo ng mga Hollywood films, pero kung mas kumita sila may mababalik na pera to fund the French films. So sana ganun din yung maging energy dito sa Pilipinas, kasi malaking bagay ang maitutulong nito sa industriya. We shouldn’t have to rely on state funding. So that’s my dream in terms of how we can find ways to strengthen and empower the film industry.
As this is a year-long celebration, what events can we expect to mark this milestone?
We have an organization called Sandaan, which stands for a hundred. It’s the National organizing council composed of various government institutions like CCP, NCCA, MTRCB, OMD, FDCP private organizations like NCAP, Animation Council of the Philippines, the Philippine Motion Pictures Producers Association, as well as different educational institutions with film programs.
We will have a hundred luminaries giving tribute to the hundred years of Philippine cinema. A concert of a hundred theme songs from over the last hundred years. We also have a tribute to our living legends such as Gloria Romero, Eddie Garcia, Anita Linda, Eddie Gutierez, and more. We have conferences and workshops on the different genres; we have partnerships with the UPFI where they’ll be holding an experimental film festival and a lecture series to talk about the hundred years of Philippine cinema. There are books commissioned to celebrate this Centennial—there’s a Pelikula Journal that’s dedicated to this. Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino will be the launching a platform for the official celebration.
We have celebrations internationally, as we are strengthening our global partnerships. We have an assistance program called the Philippine Embassy Assistance Program, which is our partnership with all Philippines posts all over the world and we encourage them to hold Filipino Film Festivals in their own respective countries. FDCP will help them curate, secure screening rights for the lms, and we want to really launch this and activate our partnerships this year para kasama naman pati yung Filipino communities abroad when we celebrate the Centennial Year of Philippine Cinema.
Could you share with us what projects are currently in the pipeline?
I just launched a week ago the Southern Voices Film Lab. This lm lab is dedicated to champion the stories of the Mindanao lmmakers. It’s a lm lab wherein [ lmmakers] will participate in a residential workshop, so it’s a year long, full feature development lab where we will have script consultants helping them develop their projects; they will be attending four residential workshops in three days where they will learn about about script writing, understanding audience design, understanding creative producing, how to look for funds, and then each project would be given Php100,000 [a hundred thousand] to develop their projects, and then come pitching showcase in December, we will be choosing two projects to get one million as co-production grant for their project.
The former head of Torino Film Lab, Matthew Deras, has a new program called First Cut Lab; it’s a script development and editing lab. We’re looking for around 6-8 projects with two slots for animation. You want to start looking for original content coming from our animators or animation filmmakers. It’s going to be in April and it’s an intensive 10-day lab, where they will be working with international script consultants, international producers, international editors to help them internationalize their projects. We were just given a go signal by the DBM to create a research on policy units, which would allow us to do market research for film policies and implementation so that we can work closely with our legislators.
We just approved an online box office system, which enable us to know the gross box offce of each film in real time. The goal is for all of the cinemas to plug in to this server so that we can understand how much lms are making each day. It will allow us to have analytics on what people watch; this would really help us understand the landscape of Philippine cinema through data. It will create transparency sa lahat ng producers natin na gumagawa ng films, so it will help us all to see which lms are not earning and help them realize what to improve in terms of promoting their films.
We also just sealed a partnership to have the heritage building of Philippine Film Archive in Intramuros. It’s the permanent storage facility for our cinematic heritage; we will have consultations to make sure that the look and the design will be compliant to the Intramuros requirements, but also in terms of technology. We’re bringing in experts so that the Philippine Film Archive will have a film museum, its own arthouse cinema, its own lab and film vault so that we can store more films, and so we can acquire more films from the production studios. I’m very very excited about this.
This article first appeared on adobo magazine’s 76th issue: The Creative Economy
