The crazy truth about non-fiction
Posted: June 9, 2008 Filed under: Arkeofilms, Kano, movies | Tags: Arkeofilms, documentaries, errol morris, films, independent movies, Kano, movies, werner herzog 1 Comment »If everything was planned, it would be dreadful. If everything was unplanned, it would be equally dreadful. Cinema exists because there are elements of both in everything…Despite all of our efforts to control something, the world is much, much more powerful than us, and more deranged even than us.
-Errol Morris in conversation with Werner Herzog
It’s what I always remind myself when I want to make the work more exciting: Just let it all hang. The world’s already crazy as it is. We are all crazy as it is.
Haaay…life.
The Law of Supply and Demand
Posted: June 5, 2008 Filed under: Arkeofilms, movies | Tags: Arkeofilms, cinemalaya, independent movies, indiesine, movies, pinoy movies Leave a comment »Let me tell you this. The sob story is over. It’s not dead.
They say there are no good Pinoy movies. The truth is, there are at least 15 good movies last year. So maybe we made about 65 (i’m just guessing here, i’m sure this is a conservative estimate). But that’s not such a bad percentage. We take a stab with the other popcorn movies out there and yet we never give up. We still watch Hollywood’s non-summer fillers and yet it’s seldom I hear you say “Hollywood stinks.”
There are good Pinoy movies. It’s just so hard to look for them. But you have to do your job. You have to take a stab as well. You can’t keep watching all that Star Cinema and Regal can give and then complain after. In fact, you have to keep watching these movies because ironically, the indies need a dose of mainstream too. I think it’s a good way to watch movies. You have to take a sampler of the whole pie.
You go to IndieSine and watch a movie. It’s in Robinsons Galleria. It might be out of the way but how are you supposed to know Pinoy movies suck in general? From July 11 to 20, go to CCP and watch the Cinemalaya movies. Watch out for the CinemaOne Originals that might be ready by third quarter of this year. You have to give it the same chance as you did say, Speed Racer.
You can’t blame filmmakers if they have to run to Europe and show their movies there because it’s where they’re given the time of day. Most of them have not given up. They just don’t have the venue that will hold them longer. Save for the lone independent theater franchise, Indiesine, it’s hard to find a venue. Sometimes SM will say yes, and sometimes they will say no to the indies. But they have their reasons. No one is giving up, and I see it.
My friends who liked Caregiver gave Ploning a chance and liked it too. They even watched Endo and Tribu and were also not disappointed. Of course they also watched a bunch of other movies but that didn’t work out so well. But if you’re real movie buffs, you have to keep giving filmmakers a reason to make more films.
