The Cinema Malaya Festival has already reached his 10 years. Since it was first launched in 2004, you can see how it progressed. Indie films in the country becomes a trend. They found out that they have also a market. Maybe the people want to see a new story plot of a movie. The mainstream movies are just offering romance stories and other film which full of shallowness. But if you want to be in depth, just watch indie film where the filmmakers can express what’s on their mind.The good thing also is they can produce a film in a low budget.
Yesterday, only unknown actors and actress were the stars of this kind of genre. Some actors and actress were a product of indie film like Coco Martin and Mercedes Cabral. But now, even popular actors are involved here although the talent fee is just small compare to what they got in the mainstream movies. Their reason is because they want to hone their acting skills. They also want to see themselves acting unconventional role that they can’t never do before. But it could also possible that they don’t have any other outlet that’s why they are joining here. We knew that Pinoy movies are almost dying. Thanks to indie film because it became a savior of the film industry!
But the outlet of indie film is just limited. You can only watch this in CCP, UP Theater, etc. So, you need to extend your effort to find the locations. But if one of the indie film becomes a big hit, big producer will grab it and they will spread it to all cinemas in the country like what happened to Ligo na U, Lapit na Me written by Eros Atalia, a notable book author and palanca awardee.
I have a friend told me that Cinema Malaya are just buying the entry films in their festival. Then, after that all the rights of that movie will be their own. They have the right to distribute it or to join it in the foreign film festivals. It only means that the filmmakers under Cinema Malaya has no control with their products.
But of course, not all indie movies are really great. Some of them are just a scrap. They just put many elements of sex, vioelence and curse words, then they will say it, ‘hey, this is an indie film!’ But if that’s the life of the character they want to portray, that’s okay. But sometimes they just become OA (overacting), they already abusing that kind of elements. Their favorite topics are porn poverty, prostitution, gay film, etc. Sometimes people are also getting tired about this kind of topic. So, they should moderate themselves from doing this kind of topics.
Sometimes also it is hard to comprehend what’s the story all about. It becomes like an abstract art or maybe the audience are just narrow minded? But I still salute to the indie filmmakers because of them, Philippine movie is still surviving. But because of the entering of mainstream actors and actresses, we can also the call indie film as the new mainstream?