MOWELFUND

September 30, 2013 – this was the day of our field trip at MOWELFUND. Unfortunately (yes, I am so unfortunate), I was not able to go there with my classmates because of over fatigue from our school requirements. I know that it is not an excuse since my classmates who have the same tasks with me were able to go there. I am so unfortunate to have a weak body that is why I was not there at MOWELFUND with my classmates (insert cry emoticon).

I am not worthy to write any reflection paper about MOWELFUND but since my professor (that is the great Jamal Ashley Abbas) is so kind and considerate, he let me have a reflection paper based on my research over the Internet. I acknowledge that the following information below are not from me but from other authors in MOWELFUND. However, I still hope that you will have time to read my blog entry about it.

Movie Workers Welfare Foundation, Inc. or MOWELFUND for short was founded in 1974. It is a “non-stock non-profit social welfare, educational, and industry development foundation.” (Movie Workers Welfare Foundation Inc., 2011)

Former President Joseph Estrada who was then San Juan Mayor and President of the Philippine Motion Picture Producers Association (PMPPA) was the one who founded this organization. He created it for the workers in the Philippine motion picture industry.

MOWELFUND was a great help to the development of the Metro Manila Film Festival Philippines (MMFFP), Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), and Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB). It also pioneered the advocacy of stopping film and video piracy.

From the information I read about this organization, I believe it is important to the film industry of the Philippines. It does not just help in the regulation in the industry but it also pioneers changes for the improvement of the Philippine Cinema.

“MOWELFUND continuously strives to provide aid to movie workers in times of sickness, disability, accident, and death. “(Movie Workers Welfare Foundation Inc., 2011)

Reference: Movie Workers Welfare Foundation Inc.

Philippine Cinema

The Philippine Cinema is our final topic in our Cinema 101 or Introduction to Film subject. Due to limited time, we discussed this topic for only two meetings, which is actually a day only since our class has three hours. The limited time did not hinder Professor Abbas to discuss the topic clearly and accurately.

I am aware that film originated from theater not only here in Philippines but also in the other countries. Recorded theater acts were the first films in the history. The first films that were shown in our country were imported from other countries since we could not afford to produce our own films that time. However, there came a time when foreign people started to produce films with their language here in the Philippines. In fact, Antonio Ramos became the first motion picture producer here in the country.

José Nepomuceno, considered as the Father of Philippine Cinema, was the first Filipino to make and show a movie in the country. The title of the movie was Dalagang Bukid (Country Maiden) which was based on a famous musical. Nepomuceno’s work was the pioneer of cinema as an art in the Philippines.

Films in the history of the Philippines had various genres according to what era it belonged to. There were several eras such as the Bomba Era and the Martial Law Era. Films during those eras were highly sex-inspired. The Marcos government wanted to divert the people’s attention to the films so that they would not revolt to the government.

Censorship has been an issue to the Philippine Cinema since 1970s. The government once used this to regulate the films and just show what benefit them. However, censorship is I believe a serious matter today in the industry. Films that are subjected to censorship will have a different story if even just one scene in the film is deleted. That is why many film experts want to stop censorship here in our country.

In my personal view of the current Philippine Cinema, I believe that independent filmmakers should have limelight in the industry. Known filmmakers are just following what is in the trend or the traditional. They feed what the audiences want. If it will continue to be like this, Philippine Cinema will also continue to die. However, if brave independent filmmakers will continue to try to break the tradition in the industry, Philippine Cinema will have more rooms for improvement and be globally competitive.

References: Wikipedia, National Commission for Culture and Arts

Eastern Promises

Eastern Promises was a 2007 film of David Cronenberg. Its main characters were Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) and Anna (Naomi Watts). Nikolai was the driver of the father and son Semyon and Kiril, respectively. The image projected on him in the beginning of the film was someone who is bad and a killer. However, the plot of the film developed and changed this image when he met Anna, a midwife in a hospital in London.

The film started with Tatiana, a pregnant teenager, who arrived bleeding in the hospital. Anna was the midwife during the labor. Because Tatiana died giving birth to her baby, Anna had the desire to give the baby to Tatiana’s family. Her only clue to the family was the diary of the teenager.

The diary was written in Russian. Anna asked her uncle, Stepan, to translate it but her uncle refused and told her not to be involved in other’s business. She found a card in the diary leading her to Semyon, an owner of a restaurant.After hearing about the teenager’s story, Semyon immediately volunteered to translate it. Little did Anna know that it was Semyon who raped Tatiana when she was 14.

It was in the restaurant during Christmastime when Nikolai and Anna first met. Anna had arrangements with Semyon so she and Nikolai often saw each other in the restaurant. When Nikolai found out about Tatiana’s case and was asked to settle down the issue with Anna and her family, his loyalty was tested. He became attached to Anna making it hard for him to do something against her.

Stepan, on the other hand, translated a part in the diary and found out that it was Semyon who raped Tatiana. He immediately told Anna about this and the whole family was alarmed, knowing that Anna had arrangements with such people. Anna became terrified with Nikolai because he was working for Semyon. However, in the end, Nikolai helped Anna in getting the baby from Kiril. He betrayed Semyon and parted ways with Anna since he was already a member of the mafia he longed since childhood.

The writer did a great job in creating the twists of the story. The thought of Nikolai helping Anna in the end was not seen in the beginning of the film. Nikolai as a round character made the film unique from other crime thriller films. The director, on the other hand, also complemented the film with the execution of the scenes. The movie was intense and impactful for the audience.

Reference: IMDb

The blood He's shed has brought us life.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. -Isaiah 53:5

This verse was the opening scene of the movie The Passion of The Christ. We watched this movie in our Drama class as the final part of our lesson about the Medieval Period of theater before going to Renaissance Period.

The movie was all about the life of Christ here on earth before He was crucified, during His persecution, and when He rose from the dead. The movie showed from how Judas betrayed Jesus and Peter denied Him until when the two regretted what they did. How Jesus still cared for them despite their acts was also showed.

It was morbid but if you will be in the scene during the time when Jesus was here on earth and when the Roman soldiers were the ones punishing those who committed crime, I believe what was shown in the movie was not far from reality.

The scenes and acts in the movie were based on the Bible. One of the scenes in the movie was when Pilate asked the crowd on what to do with Jesus then the crowd answered, "Crucify Him!" and it was based on Mark 15:12-13.

12 "What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them.

13 "Crucify him!" they shouted.

It was shown in the movie how the people whom Jesus taught, healed, and did miracles to turned their backs on Him, despite everything Jesus did to and for them. However, Jesus' love for the people did not change. He even died on the cross for our sins; that instead of us dying, He was the one who died for all of us. For it is said in Romans 6:23,

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God sent His only perfect Son, Jesus, to die for us so that we may no longer die for our sins. John 3:16 shows how God loves us so much.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. -John 3:16

Because of Jesus Christ's death, we are already saved and cleansed with His blood. We can also experience eternal life with Him in heaven if we believe in Him.

Everything was already provided. We should just believe in Christ, surrender our everything to Him, and live our lives holy and pleasing to Him. God loves us so much that He offers the gift of eternal life for free. We are just to accept the gift, Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Savior; be transformed by the Holy Spirit and enjoy the rest of our lives with His blessings and live our very best for His glory.

The movie made me cry really hard because I was reminded of God's unfailing love. I also felt guilty because I have broken His heart many times but still He never changed. He accepts me again and again whenever I ask for forgiveness. His arms are always widely open for me, to hug me. I can never give the love back to Him equal to what He gives me but I will do everything and live my whole life thanking and loving Him and doing what He wants me to do for His glory.

The New Hollywood and Independent Filmmaking

The Sound of Music (1965)
One of the blockbusters in 1960s

Robert Altman's M*A*S*H (1970)
Counterculture-flavored film

Hollywood was doing well during the 1960s. However, problems soon emerged. Because of expensive studio projects, television networks stopped bidding for films. This was one of the main reasons why Hollywood companies lost over $200 million every year.

One of the strategies producers did was to produce counterculture-flavored films. Their target audience in these films was the youth. However, these kinds of films did not change the condition of the industry. Films intended for broader audiences were the ones which improved the industry’s condition. These films were the films of the movie brats (click to read my blog entry about the movie brats).

Because of these filmmakers’ experience in film schools, their films reflected what they learned including film aesthetics and history. They were all admirers of the classical Hollywood tradition that is why many films in the New Hollywood were based on the old Hollywood. However, there are also directors who admired the European tradition and produced films influenced by European cinema. These are the reasons why many movie brats proved that they were the most successful directors of the era.

Steven Spielberg's successful film
Jurassic Park (1993)

In 1980s, new filmmakers won recognition which created a New New Hollywood. Filmmakers abroad (from Britain, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland) also contributed to the renaissance of Hollywood. Women filmmakers came to the limelight and became successful during this era. Also, minority directors independent film were absorbed by the New New Hollywood.

Because no film movement emerged during the 1970s and 1980s, the directors continued the tradition of classical Hollywood cinema. The editing remained continuous. Spielberg and Lucas were the ones who led the move toward the use of technology in films. It was also the less well-funded Hollywood filmmaking which promoted colorful styles. Different enhancements in conventional genre, narrative, and style were present.

By the end of 1990s, independent film tradition rose. Big-budget independent films expressed an experimental attitude. Filmmakers began to make more bold innovations with narrative form. Until now, directors are having many innovations to classical cinema in their films but still making it accessible to the audience.

Reference: Film Art by David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson

Un Chien Andalou

“Surrealism originated in the late 1910s and early '20s as a literary movement that experimented with a new mode of expression called automatic writing, or automatism, which sought to release the unbridled imagination of the subconscious.” (Voorhies, 2004)

Surrealism in art and literature, as defined above, did not really differ from Surrealist cinema. Surrealist films also showed unrestrained imaginations and dreams and unusual imagery. These films, unlike Classical Hollywood Style films, were not narrative. Causes of events in the film were difficult to decipher giving the audience different interpretations of the film.

Un Chien Andalou was an example of a surrealist film. It was a 1928 silent surrealist short film directed by Luis Buñuel. At first, I thought that the film had no point at all. However, when I analyzed the film scrupulously and tried to connect the scenes in the film, I realized that there were many possible stories based on different interpretations that can be extracted from the film, justifying the film’s creativity.

I really had a hard time coming up with a story line because of the nonlinear presentation of events. I believe that there were scenes that were not that significant to the film but somehow complemented the idea of the film. One thing that I am certain about the film is that it was about a man who was a homosexual. He was bitter to women and as a result, he wanted to kill the woman in the film.

The man on the bicycle wearing woman's clothes

Going further with the scenes in the film, I did not understand right away the scene where the man, wearing clothes for women, was driving his bicycle towards the woman’s house. I just realized that it showed his homosexuality when the flashback was shown. Sixteen years ago, the man was scolded by his father because he was wearing clothes for women. Because of this, the man killed his own father who happened to be the lover of the woman he wanted to kill.

A scene from the film where the woman's eyeball is to be slit

The scene where the eyeball of the woman were to be slit clearly implied that the woman was desired to be killed. When the man held the woman’s breasts, it seemed that he was just molesting the woman. However, connecting it to the idea that he was a homosexual, his expressions while he was holding the breasts and the way he held it were more likely to experience how it feels like to have breasts.

On the other hand, I did not see the connection to the other scenes of the scene where another woman was poking a hand on the street. Maybe it was related to the man’s hand where ants were coming out, which was shown several times in the film.

It was quite unclear in my part on how the woman happened to be with the father of the man when there was a scene that showed that the father already died. It seemed that the woman also died to bring her to the life where the father was present. This life was represented by a beach where the woman’s clothes thrown by the father and the box containing the man’s hand in the earlier scenes were present.

The woman and the father in one of the last scenes

Finally, the film was ended with a scene showing that the woman and the father were together until they both died in their new life. It somehow implied that the homosexual man was successful in his goal of killing the woman and whoever went his way like his own father.

French Impressionism and Surrealism

It was during the silent era after World War I when France adapted movements in other arts. They adapted these movements because the World War I seriously affected the French film industry and made Hollywood very prominent in France that time, to the point that French people are watching more Hollywood films than local films already. Not all these movements are locally French except for French Impressionism and Surrealism. They used these film movements as alternatives to Classical Hollywood Style.

The young filmmakers Abel Gance, Louis Delluc, Germaine Dulac, Marcel L’Herbier, and Jean Epstein wanted cinema to be considered as an art comparable to music, literature, and painting. Because of this, French Impressionism started to be practiced in films.

Superimposed frames to depict the
woman's emotion

French Impressionism focused on the emotions and/or the psychological aspects of a character. Superimposed frames to show a character’s thoughts and different camera angles such as point-of-view shots to show how a character sees something, characterized impressionist films. Editing and cinematography were the distinct factors of these films.

“Impressionism’s emphasis on personal emotion gives the film’s narratives an intensely psychological focus.” (Bordwell & Thompson, n.d., p. 451)

Impressionist films cost more when sound came to the cinema in 1929. Directors lacked financial assistance to produce more impressionist films that time. Impressionism may be ended by 1929 but its influences continued until now.

Ants coming out from a hand is an
example of unusual imagery

Surrealism, on the other hand, was characterized by its nonlinear presentation of events. It was anti-narrative and showed unrestrained imaginations and dreams and unusual imagery. Causes of events in the film were difficult to decipher since often there were scenes that were not that significant to the film.

"Surrealism [was] based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association, heretofore neglected, in the omnipotence of dreams, in the undirected play of thought." (Breton, n.d)

Surrealist films’ cinematography and editing were similar to impressionist films. However, the psychological aspect of a character was absent. These films were hard to understand. Many different interpretations can be extracted from a single surrealist film.

The decline of surrealism in the French film industry started when André Breton, founder of surrealism, joined the Communist Party. Surrealists were involved in a disagreement that Communism was a political equivalent of Surrealism. Therefore, as a unified movement, French Surrealism was ended in 1930.

Reference: Film Art by David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson