It is (still) September. Since 2011 (during my time at USC Cinema), I've always kept the article "WISHFUL THINKING FOR PHILIPPINE CINEMA", written by the Filipino-Canadian film critic Mr. Alexis Tioseco (one the most passionate Southeast Asian cinema advocates during his time), to heart. Every time we held the "Wishful Thinking for Philippine Cinema" Sinekultura event on Septembers where we, USC Cinema students and faculty, and/or Cinemata's external guests, all read through Mr. Tioseco's article in any of the CAFA (now SAFAD) Theatres to honor his memory, and of his Slovene film critic partner Nika Bohinc's too — who were both murdered on the night of September 1st 2009. Now, with me being on my 12th year in this industry, I'd still read through this article, and cry for this "Wishful Thinking for Philippine Cinema". But here we are now, given the opportunity to do something about our industry. Which thankfully, is becoming a "by Cinema for Cinema" thing. Yet, I hope that the "by Cinema" will not be limited in scope. Just as emphasizingly expressed in our Constitution, "the right for all", and just as everyone in the Majority have rights, the Minority shall have the same rights as well. Personally, I disagree with the opinion of others that the "regions", "film/media students" (Students) and/or "low-budget" productions are to be excluded from the scope of the ongoing proposed laws — as the regions, and its people (both Students and non-Students), have been utilized for "out-of-town" production, post-production, and/or other creative work like screenwriting. The "best practices" should begin as a Student, and similarly, rights should be exercised as a Student as well, since being a "Student" does not necessarily mean that one does not "work" (be it at internship level, or contractual). I was working during 3 out of my 4 years during my film school, and so were more than 50% of my batchmates. For context: I studied in a private university where, based on my personal observation, a lot of financially abundant parents send their children to. However, despite being mainly known as a university for the "financially abundant", more than 50% of the "Film Students" do contractual work, which included me who was even already a DL scholar throughout my 4 years in film school. Can we imagine: What more would that number of "Film Student Workers" be for non-"financially abundant" film/media schools? At the same time, aside from the "Students", within those regions lie "per-project based" film and media workers who are hired for region-specific viable services in most, if not all aspects, aside from those who are working in regular film and media employments in the regions. On a personal note: I was hired as a local production coordinator in Cebu by a non-"regional" film production company at 17; prior to that, I was locally hired within the Cebu region for videography work at 16; and I was hired to make a promotional video for a real estate company in General Santos at 18; among my other film and media-related work — all while I was a "Film Student". Within my 12 years in the industry — I only had 2 years of regular employment in a film and media company, then majority of my other 8 years (3 years during my film school years, and 5 years after) was on a project-based/contractual nature, and the recent (nearing) 2 years was when we started our own small film/multimedia company. Although I was blessed during my own "2 years of regular employment" that I had such "optimal" working conditions, I've heard horrific and saddening stories and experiences from others. My "optimal conditions" were not the norm. In fact, as the others saddeningly justify/ied their conditions, "Well, it has always been the 'system'. There's nothing we can do about it." Now, despite being a small regional company, we see to it to give our people and advocate "optimal" conditions, as that was part of our "training" in film school and my other film programs abroad, and since I was personally privileged to experience just that in my 2 years as a regular employee, thus this "advocacy". (My former bosses studied in a film school in the US, thus, perhaps, the significantly different working culture and practices in that company, which aligned with my personal principles.) Of course, I've had my own fair share of disappointments, "traumas", and cries during the "8 other years". "Cries" that could do nothing anyway, as there were no laws to protect me nor anyone else's "Cries" that I've personally witnessed, despite piece/s of evidence and such — as the nature of the film and media's "contractual work" was not, or perhaps "limited" to be considered to be under the scope of the Philippine Labor Code then. I, too, was confronted uncountable times by the reality of the so-called "system" — be it dealing with both regional and non-regional people, and regardless of the "budget range". But, anyway, that was not even the main reason why "no one speaks up" — it was due to fear; the fear that once they do "speak up", they may be ostracized and will not be employed again for future projects. And since the industry is technically "small" as most "big people" know each other, that fear can become even more consuming. Since most of these people are breadwinners, or are the "non-privileged", they had/have no choice but to continue working on under the same (unjust and/or unfair) working conditions, disregarding their supposedly inherent "rights" as people in this country. This is the heartbreaking truth about the Philippine film and media industry. If such a big actor like Ms. Iza Calzado, as she mentioned in the September 27th Senate Hearing, has experienced working for 36 hours straight which was only considered to be a "1-day shoot" — what more are those people behind-the-camera who would approximately be working double or even triple that time, and are paid merely by just a glass of water in proportion to her gallon? Objectively speaking, such malpractices were and still are evident within the "regional" and/or "inter-regional", and "low-budget" context as well — cases that, in their substantial proportion to their geographical and/or economical context, can arguably be alarming. Just this year, my own company suffered a loss amounting to 6-digits as a "co-production company" in "partnership" with a "low-budget" principal production ("the other Party"). But, in the midst of the legal rebuttals, our legal advisor suggested that we let it go, and not add more to our already piling costs with additional legal expenses — for which the other Party would have not been able to compensate all of those accumulated costs anyway — regardless, whether we have won the case or not. What for a "win" if we were to have an even huger (monetary value) loss? We are just a small company who simply wants to advocate in producing for and with our fellow Regional Filmmakers which may usually be of "low-budget" in nature (typically with average overall project value at less than PHP 300k for shorter projects, and below PHP 2M for full-length projects), and yet, such instances can still disturbingly happen. Aside from us, this the other Party have also taken advantaged of yet another small regional production outfit as its other "co-production partner" for another project, at the same time as our case — for which we have only come to know after our own settlement with this the other Party. Thus, I say, these "cases", although not of "big-budget" in nature, can arguably be alarming. Admittedly, such "losses" happen due to our inherent Filipino culture of Bayanihan where we have this natural tendency to help another fellow person and/or entity, especially when they are "in need", and especially to those who are in the "lower bracket" of the industry. But there have been those instances where people abuse and take advantage of such a supposedly inherent positive culture. Most of the time, we let such cases slide. But can we imagine: If the "Minority" can already do this against one another? What more to the bigger ones against the "smaller people"? Our anecdotes are even just a fraction of someone else's realities out there. Thus, this dire need for certain Laws to exist. If there are laws mandating standard industry practices for our own industry, this Bayanihan culture can no longer be used as a "loophole" or a justification for any malpractices of a Company towards a Worker and vice-versa, and even between "low-budget" partnerships and co-productions, et al. — anywhere across the territorial boundaries of this Country; and of its extended international relations, if there are to be such existing laws (similar to the natures and intentions behind the Overseas Contract Workers-related provisions in our Labor Code, and of the Maritime-related Laws in the Philippines).
The foreign countries whose film and media work we admire (e.g. South Korea, Japan, Taiwan) did not have their "success" happen overnight. Similar to where and how we are now, they too, have had their fair share of unpleasant histories — until the people have fought for their rights, and have come hand-in-hand altogether with their business sectors and government agencies, with hopes for a better Creative Industry at-large. Look at where they are now — that should give us hope for ours. As both an individual regional film and media practitioner (Contractee), and as a regional film and media company owner (both as Contractor and as Contractee; and/or as Partner and/or Co-Producer), this is just a fraction of my Wishful Thinking for Philippine Cinema, most especially for the Regional Filmmakers. We still have a long way to go, however, this is a start — and hopefully, it would be an optimal start at that. After all, whatever we do now is ultimately for all of us, and, essentially, for our future generations. (Disclaimer: This is my own opinion. My opinion does not represent any other person than myself, or any entity that I ever was or am currently a part of.) If you haven't yet!
May you please answer this SURVEY: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5C1INsLVe6WNwCnO_U5qYUEtMUV-NGIS5vrZsMxiyIiJJQw/viewform We are collecting data for the purposes of (a) gathering factual bases (see Q6 in the survey form) and of (b) provisional suggestions on the Proposed Laws (see Q7; which preferably are with legal bases if your suggestions are from foreign laws), most especially regionally-specific provisional suggestions (!) — all for drafting our Collective Position for the Senate Hearings on those 2 proposed laws as the audio-visual / media / film LEADERS, WORKERS and/or COMPANY OWNERS from the Regions. *Please share the link of the Survey to our other fellow regional audio-visual / media / film constituents, MSMEs, councils, groups, schools, circles, independent leaders, etc. *The survey ends on October 15, 2023 11:59 PM (PHT). — We've set this Deadline to give ample time for all the groundwork in preparation for the next Senate Hearing.
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Tama ka.
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