The UP Film Institute is currently wedged in an age-old tug-of-war between artistic freedom and censorship. If, out there, film enthusiasts are experiencing an entirely new visual world, unimpeded by rules and conventions, here in UP, they are kept out of the cinema, while censors decide what is fit and not fit for our entertainment and moral quotients.
The culprit is an ongoing debate between the University of the Philippines and the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board over whether the UPFI falls under the jurisdiction of the regulatory board. Early this year, the MTRCB sent UP a cease-and-desist order on the grounds of complaints it received following the screening of Adolf Alix Jr.’s “Aurora”, Lav Diaz’s “Death in the Land of Encantos”, and Alejandro Bong Ramos’ “Butas”. All three films are rated X, or “not fit for public exhibition.”
The MTRCB cites Presidential Decree No. 1986, which “prohibits the public and commercial exhibition of films without permit from the Board.” Atty. Jonathan Presquito, legal counsel of the regulatory board, was quoted in news reports saying, “UPFI has to follow parameters if they claim that the films are being screened for academic purposes only, that it should be a legitimate academic exercise for students, and not for any Tom, Dick, or Harry.”
UPFI hinges its defense on academic freedom as spelled out in the 1987 Constitution and in RA 9500 or the UP Charter of 2008, as well as the understanding with former MTRCB Chair Armida Siguion-Reyna that UP and the Cultural Center of the Philippines can screen films without MTRCB permits. In a statement, UPFI argues that “academic freedom is essential to the mission of the University…that showing of films is part and parcel of its academic programs.”
On the allegations that UPFI is doing commercial exhibitions because it charges viewing fees and admits more than 50 people including non-students, Prof. Anne Marie de Guzman, director of the Institute, cites a UP Board of Regents resolution dated March 27, 2003 which states: “The Film Theater will be managed and operated by the UP Film Institute as an income-generating unit, even as it complements the viewing requirements of film students and provides alternative film programming for the UP community and the general public.”
Debate interrupted
On July 30, UPFI and MTRCB put their debate on hold for the Philippine premiere of “Kinatay”, the film which won for Brillante Mendoza the Best Director Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, at UPFI’s Cine Adarna. Mendoza, the first Filipino director to win the prestigious prize, initially refused to submit his film for review, saying he would cancel the screening if cuts were made. The MTRCB issued a preventive suspension order against UP with respect to the premiere. The tussle got nationwide coverage, and Malacañang had to intervene in negotiations. Mendoza ultimately agreed to have his oeuvre reviewed; interestingly, the MTRCB gave it not only an R-18 rating without cuts, but also a five-year permit to be shown in any outlet.
Why the seismic shift in the MTRCB’s stand on censorship? “Kinatay” is arguably a masterful exposition of the dark world of prostitution and illegal drugs. Like most other independent movies of international film festival caliber, it also contains nudity and graphic violence. Is the regulatory board re-thinking its classification policy? Or is winning a prestigious award a requirement for a film to avoid being branded unfit for public exhibition?
The day after the “Kinatay” premiere, the UPFI released a statement maintaining the position that classification and review are not mere regulation but repression. The Institute argues that its theaters—Cine Adarna, Bernal Gallery, and Videotheque—are alternative venues for veteran, emerging, mainstream, and peripheral filmmakers to showcase their work free of censorship. Prof. Eduardo Lejano, former UPFI director, says the Institute will continue to screen films which their faculty members find artistic and well-executed although the MTRCB may find them too violent or pornographic.
Cinematic studies
Consolacion Laguardia, MTRCB chair, points out that when Siguion-Reyna declared UP a censorship-free zone, she was referring to the UP Film Center and not UPFI. It must be noted, however, that UPFI is merely the resulting entity of the merger between the Film Center under the UP President’s Council on the Arts and the Film Department under the UP Diliman College of Mass Communications in 2003. The two units have since become interdependent components of the restructured UPFI—the Film Division transformed into Academic and Research Department and the Film Center into Theatre and Extension Services Division.
The Film Center was established in April 1976 as a “centralized workshop center” of cinematic studies. It conducted a series of workshops called “Cinema as Art” which consisted of lecture-demonstrations. Facilitators and resource persons included international filmmaking professionals such as Michael Haller, Gerald Lawrence, Ernest Rose, Robert Wagner, and the world-renown documentary filmmaker Don Pennebaker.
In 1984, the UP College of Mass Communication Film Department instituted a degree program called BA in Communication, major in Film and Audio-Visual Communication. The program consisted of theoretical and practical courses covering areas of planning and management, research, production, writing, performance, cinematography, directing, editing, processing, production design, criticism, and evaluation.
Beyond censorship
Beyond its crusade against censorship, the UPFI is committed “to nurturing aspiring film practitioners by providing well-rounded academic and practical training within the context of a culturally diverse and socially responsive education that the University provides.” Its curriculum encompasses all aspects of filmmaking—history, applications, discourses, creative processes, movements, and special topics.
The curriculum is based on a holistic approach. Dr. Jose Hernani David, founding director, says their faculty members—a roster of award-winning and critically-acclaimed filmmakers (documentary, short film, full length, television), production specialists, film critics, screenwriters, scriptwriters, cinematographers, musical scorers, and movie and theater performers—are well-versed in both theory and production. “We don’t follow the Western trend of ‘over specializing,’ where theory and production are separated,” he explains. “Instead, we do both production and academic writing but focus on one or the other. Students, on the other hand, need to study both aspects.”
In the ranks of the UPFI faculty are Dr. Nicanor Tiongson, founding member of the Cinemalaya Foundation Inc. and former chairperson of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino; UP Open University Chancellor Grace Alfonso, winner in the 1988 Tamtam Video Festival in Turin, Italy; Prof. Roehl Jamon, director of GMA 7’s “Unang Hirit” and the defunct “Compañero y Compañera” of ABS-CBN; Prof. Yason Banal is an internationally acclaimed artist, writer, photographer, and independent curator who has done solo and group exhibitions both here and abroad, most recently in London, Singapore, and Norway; cinematographers Nap Jamir (“Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros” and “Rizal sa Dapitan”) and Neil Daza (“Dekada ’70” and “Laro sa Baga”); short filmmakers and animators Nonoy Dadivas (editor, “Masahista”) and Teta Tulay (“One Minute Death,” 2007 Animahenasyon finalist); scriptwriter Armando “Bing” Lao (“Kinatay” and “Serbis”); and veteran actor Malou de Guzman (“Orapronobis” and “Sister Stella L”).
The UPFI’s Academic and Research Division offers a BA in Film and Audiovisual Communication—the first and only film degree in the country which, according to Ms. Olivia Linsangan Cantor, coordinator for the Academic and Research Division, reflects the emerging trends, technological development, and innovative progress in filmmaking. The Institute also offers an MA in Media Studies for film scholars, practitioners, and educators. In both programs, the goal is to mold filmmakers who are socially responsible and culturally aware of the issues and developments around them.
To complement its classroom setup, the UPFI uses alternative methods through the Theatre and Extension Services Division, which conducts workshops and training courses for young film professionals who do not have the opportunity to take the degree program. The workshops cover a broad range of areas, from basic, intermediate, and advanced scriptwriting to basic digital filmmaking, art and animation, black and white photography, sound and music design, non-linear editing, documentary production, independent film production management, and experimental film production.
Filmmaking is perhaps the most technological form of art, combining audio and visual elements in one medium to animate spellbinding images. To keep its students abreast of trends, the UPFI provides wave-of-the-future audio-visual equipment, non-linear editing suites, a black-and-white photo laboratory, an art gallery, and a film archive which houses rare film artifacts, scripts, catalogs, and publications.
Moreover, the UPFI operates its own 800-seater theater, the Cine Adarna, which is noted for its comprehensive program of film screenings, introducing cinephiles to a diverse range of filmmaking traditions. Named after a mythical bird, Cine Adarna has been a favorite venue for international, regional, national, even sectoral film festivals, such as the Cine Veritas Human Rights Celebration, Asian Visions Film Festivals, Pelikula Ek Experimental Film Festival, Pink Film Festival, French Spring Film Festival, Pelicula Spanish Film Festival, Australian Film Festival, and Celebrate Canada Film Package, among many others. For screenings that cater to small audience, usually by-invitation affairs such as the Kinatay premiere, the UPFI has a videotheque which can accommodate up to a maximum of 80 people.
Creative ambiance
But long before the UPFI came into existence, UP was already a haven for artists from various disciplines. The premium that the University has placed on freedom, creativity, and self-empowerment creates an ambiance that is conducive for faculty members and students to express their ideas through the mass media.
UP has produced filmmakers who, in turn, defined and redefined the topography of mainstream Philippine cinema. Among these filmmakers are the late National Artists for Cinema Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal, 2007 UP Alumni Association Outstanding Professional Awardee Maryo J. delos Reyes, World Studio Foundation Grand Jury Prize for Best Experimental Film winner Sari Lluch Dalena, and New York Festival for Television—Current Affairs and Social Issues gold medalist Edita Carolino-Garcia.
Today, UP continues to graduate students who are currently key players in the movie and television industries. They include directors/writers Jeffrey Jeturian (“Minsan Pa,” “Tuhog,” “Pila Balde”), Lino Cayetano (“I’ve Fallen for You”), Cathy Garcia (“You Changed My Life,” “A Very Special Love”), Joyce Bernal (“Kimmy Dora”), and Emmanuel dela Cruz (“Sarong Bangui”); and production designer Leo Abaya (“Jose Rizal,” “Kubrador,” and “Muro-Ami”).
Other alumni have gone into news and public service. They include award-winning broadcast journalists Che-Che Lazaro, Tina Monzon-Palma, Jessica Soho, David Celdran, Kara David, Karen Davila, Maki Pulido, and Abner Mercado. Some of them spent time in international news organizations such as Maria Ressa as bureau chief of CNN Jakarta and Twink Macaraig as news anchor of Asia Business News in Singapore.
Even the current toast of the tinseltown, comic ingénue Eugene Domingo, is a Dulaang UP veteran. Domingo’s first solo starrer, “Kimmy Dora,” is reaping both critical and commercial successes—a rarity at this time when the economy is on a downturn and the film studios have been releasing remakes of old materials.
And then there’s the emergence of independent cinema in which UP filmmakers are playing an important role.
Independent culture
Dr. Roland Tolentino, dean of UP Diliman College of Mass Communication, makes it clear that the UPFI does not focus on independent cinema. If Cine Adarna is screening mostly independent films these days, he says it is simply because “it is the temper of the times.”
Also, it is in the “indie” genre that UPFI students are starting to make their mark in the filmmaking industry, winning awards and citations in the Kodak Film Awards, Student Academy Awards, and Gawad CCP for Alternative Film and Video. In 1996, Corina Millado’s “Descansos” was the country’s entry in the Asian Film Festival in New York. Ten years later, Tey Clamor repeated such a feat with her “Sakdal Laya” which was the country’s official entry in the 34th Student Film Academy Awards in the US. Clamor’s animation “VIP” would later bag the Jury Prize for the 2007 Film Your Issue Competition in New York.
Faculty members and alumni, meanwhile, continue to be recognized in international film festivals, as exemplified by Kidlat Tahimik (“Mababangong Bangungot,” 1977 Berlin Film Festival), Nick Deocampo (“Oliver,” 1987 Brussels Film Festival), Raymond Red (“Anino,” 2000 Cannes International Film Festival), Jeffrey Jeturian (“Kubrador,” 2006 Moscow International Film Festival), Raya Martin (“Autohystoria,” 2007 Marseille Festival of Documentary Festival), and most recently Pepe Diokno (“Engkwentro,” 2009 Venice International Film Festival), among many others.
That Cine Adarna features mostly indie films these days may very well be a salute to the ideals that independent filmmaking promotes—imagination, creativity, reinvention, and critical thinking. These are the same values that the UPFI is trying to protect in its fight against censorship.
Dear Elizabeth 