MTRCB discussion

[sharkey360]

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The MTRCB has often been controversial in its duty to regulate media content, and this time they gave X rating to two films.

MANILA, Philippines - Here is the official statement of the ABS-CBN News Channel on the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board's decision to give X-ratings on 2 films part of the amBisyon 2010 series.

STATEMENT OF ANC ON MTRCB's X RATING OF 2 AMBISYON FILMS

Two of AmBisyon’s films, directed by internationally acclaimed filmmakers Jeffrey Jeturian and Brillante Mendoza, were rated X yesterday, March 25, by the MTRCB.

Jeturian’s film focused on the state of the economy. His camera follows a newspaper from the time it is delivered to a homeowner to when it is used to wipe feces from the foot of a cart-pushing vendor. Jeturian uses a newspaper printed with the same controversial advertisement that came out in early January trumpeting the administration’s economic successes. The film, called “Ganito tayo ngayon, Paano na tayo bukas?” ends with President Arroyo’s photo on the crumpled newspaper.

The film was X-rated for “undermining the faith and confidence of the people in government.”

Mendoza’s film, “Ayos Ka” is a music video whose hopeful soundtrack is a stark contrast against images of poverty, prostitution, drugs and murder.

The MTRCB claimed Mendoza’s film is “injurious to the prestige of the Republic of the Philippines and its people."

ANC, the Abs-cbn News Channel, produced the AmBisyon 2010 film series in the name of public interest, to offer a nation on the verge of a critical election the chance to focus on issues, not personalities.

It is an advocacy shared by the film industry. Twenty of the country’s most powerful voices in cinema have offered their talents gratis to each create a short film on a chosen issue.

The films are scheduled to screen at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on April 6, and in a five-episode weekly series over ANC and Studio 23 beginning April 9.

We in ANC respect due process, and will be requesting a second review on Monday. We hope the MTRCB will reconsider.

We support our filmmakers in their decision not to revise their films. While the views of the 20 amBisyon filmmakers may not necessarily reflect ANC's, we believe that these films are legitimate perspectives of the state of the nation.

We trust in the public’s capacity to decide whether they will claim these views as their own.

Source - Statement of ANC on MTRCB's X-rating of 2 amBisyon 2010 films | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

[praetorian321411]

Them giviing those movies an "x" rating is totally nonsense. They had shown us great disrespect. They believe that we, as an audience, lack the capacity to decide and interpret the impact of those movies,that had earned positive acknowledgement in an international body.

tsk tsk tsk..it is so sad. They should be replaced. The members of the MTRCB are old people with old ideas. They will going to have a hard time coping up with change. Some would rather stick to what they knew about rather than to learn of what is new.

[sharkey360]

Them giviing those movies an "x" rating is totally nonsense. They had shown us great disrespect. They believe that we, as an audience, lack the capacity to decide and interpret the impact of those movies,that had earned positive acknowledgement in an international body.

tsk tsk tsk..it is so sad. They should be replaced. The members of the MTRCB are old people with old ideas. They will going to have a hard time coping up with change. Some would rather stick to what they knew about rather than to learn of what is new.

I noticed that in recent years, the MTRCB has been very defensive about the so-called state.

Let's see how they perform once a new administration comes in this June 30.

[sharkey360]

Curious audiences who flocked to the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Tuesday were curious to know: What about Jeffrey Jeturian and Brillante Mendoza’s Ambisyon 2010 films earned an X-rating from the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB)?

As they found out after the cinema premiere and gala on April 6, it was irony and a newspaper dripping with feces that did it.

Mendoza’s music video “Ayos Ka” is set to the upbeat rap song “Pilipinas Ayos Ka” that extols the Philippine’s nonexistent virtues (among its claims are that there is no poverty). Its accompanying scenes of slums and squalor, however, prove the opposite.

Jeturian’s film “Ganito Tayo Ngayon, Paano Tayo Bukas?”, meanwhile, shows the lives of ordinary citizens in Metro Manila as they read the day’s newspaper headline on how great the economy is.

However, the headline doesn’t seem to match reality. In its final scene, a kariton-pusher who collects junk for a living accidentally steps on wet poop and wipes it off with a newspaper page.

Jeturian’s short film ends with the close-up of the broadsheet page, showing the country’s alleged economic leaps, splashed with shit.

The irony of both poverty-themed films was not lost on the MTRCB. In a second round of reviews, Mendoza’s film was given an R-rating instead of an X, but Jeturian’s film kept its X-rating, such that it cannot be shown in public cinemas.

The MTRCB argued that the films cast the country in a bad light. The filmmakers argue back that it's simply reality.

TV debut

While Jeturian’s film can’t be shown in theaters, ANC’s producers were able to secure a permit to show most AmBisyon 2010 films on television— even the one with an X rating.

ANC’s advocacy film project AmBisyon 2010 made its much-anticipated television debut this week.

Starting on April 6, audiences can watch all 20 short films—created by 14 established directors and 6 budding filmmakers—on ABS-CBN channels ANC and Studio 23.

“We feel it's a little odd [that the films can’t show in cinema but can be shown in full in television,” says Patricia Evangelista, one of the project organizers at the CCP gala where the directors were honored.

“But it's also because the MTRCB has different panels,” she said.
Evangelista said the filmmakers and producers disagree with the MTRCB’s decision, “but they will follow processes and will show the films on ABS-CBN.”

In the run up to May 10, 2010, ABS-CBN channels will air a package of 4 films per week for 5 weeks. ANC will start airing the episodes every Friday at 6 p.m. with replays at 8 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays.

Studio 23, meanwhile, will air the episodes every Friday at 11 p.m. to 12 a.m.

ANC also held a special screening of AmBisyon 2010 at the UP Film Center on April 9, the only other time when the films could be shown in a theater.

The project is meant to showcase each filmmaker’s unique vision and hopes for the country, especially at a time when voters are picking the next leaders.

Socio-political issues

Through each filmmaker’s lens, pressing issues like population control, environmental problems, the curtailment of press freedom, the poor state of education and healthcare, unemployment, land struggle and the question of democracy and poverty come alive.

Drawing from her personal experience with unjust healthcare, Sunshine Matutina’s “Hingalo” follows the desperate attempts of a husband to save his wife from dying from a miscarriage, but watches her die as they are turned away by every hospital they go to.

Ellen Ramos’s animated film “Wasteland” shows a child who goes through hell and water to go to school but finds that their ramshackle school cannot hold up anymore.

Jerrold Tarog’s “Faculty” is about two private college teachers—one an activist, the other a conservative—who clash on what a teacher’s role should be.

Thorny grassroots issues are also a highlight of some films, including Pam Miras’s “Huwag Kang Titingin” about the daughters of a seeming New People’s Army rebel and Ditsi Carolino’s documentary on the Sumilao farmers.

Some films tackled the Ampatuan massacre, where 57 journalists and civilians were brutally murdered by a local warlord’s armed bodyguards.

Kiri Dalena’s “Requiem for M” shows highly-charged footage of the funerals of those killed in the massacre, but the scenes are played backwards.

Emmanuel dela Cruz’s “Laro” re-enacts the gruesome events using action figures and toy trucks handled by playacting children.

The lighter side?

There are also some comedic streaks to some films, like Henry Frejas’s black comedy “Hanapbuhay” about a poor funeral parlor employee who waits—unsuccessfully—for people in his village to die.
Aissa Penafiel’s film team, meanwhile, created “Habol Hininga”, that shows what life would be like in a heavily toxic environment—with people living life as usual, but having to wear scuba fins and a funny-looking gas mask at all times.

Jade Castro’s “Di Ako Makatulog Kasi Wala Ka Sa Tabi Ko” distills health issues through the eyes of JC, a young call center worker who mistakes the pain in his chest (probably caused by his penchant for smoking) as heartache for his girlfriend Kim.

Seemingly apathetic teens discuss the possibility of infidelity while cuddling in bed in John Torres’s Visayan-language film “Wala Kaming Pakialam Sa Demokrasya.”

An anti-administration Presidential Security Group member gets to air his true sentiments about the president he guards over a sumptuous breakfast in Jon Red’s “Pandesal, Sardinas, Gatas (PSG).”

Meanwhile, whimsical visuals and quirky dialogue rule supreme in Emerson Reyes’s “Telenovela Ni Juan at Luzviminda”, an allegorical disagreement between a boyfriend named Juan (the Filipino people) and his girlfriend (the Philippines) about when to give birth to their child named “Democracy.”

The same goes for Erik Matti’s “Di More DiMeyrrier”, a funny take on population control about a bearded God who orders Evs and Dan to procreate, no matter what the cost to their tiny garden of limited resources.

Pure ambition

Corruption is exposed in Raymond Red’s mafia-esque film “Pusila” about a candidate who bribes his way to win a crime lord’s support and in McRobert Macario’s thriller “Ang Assassination” about a hitman hired by a politician to kill his rival.

Man’s relationship to the environment is the theme of Gym Lumbera’s philosophical piece “Dahil Sa’Yo”, about an old man who has an almost human relationship with his banana tree. He serenades it with his guitar and even cries when he cuts up its heart (puso ng saging).

Finally, Paolo Villaluna’s epic “Wasteland” follows the lives of a genteel mestizo family as they prosper in the 1960s, fall into financial ruin during Martial Law, see hope in the 1986 revolution, but ultimately come to a tragic end year post-1986.

Evangelista says not all audiences will agree with the perspectives put forward by each film, but she says “we must all agree that the perspectives are legitimate.”

"They may be perspectives that many Filipinos share, but who don’t have a voice to speak,” she says. “The filmmakers are sharing theirs. So we’re aiming to spread the messages as far as we can.”

Screenings at schools and other venues are in the works so more voters can watch and learn the issues. What it takes to change the country, organizers say, is just bold, hopeful ambition.

Source - How to earn an X-rating, and other lessons from AmBisyon 2010 | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

[sharkey360]

I wonder what the presidential candidates would do with the MTRCB once they come into power.