All the right moves

VILLAREAL. Proactive and innovative initiatives.

The MTRCB and its head, lawyer Toto Villareal, should be congratulated for its recent, proactive and innovative moves, starting with the launch of its new TV show, which provides a welcome link that viewers and industry members can readily access to clarify nagging questions, pressing issues, possible sources of conflict, etc.

Also to be heartily encouraged are the MTRCB’s efforts to boost the rights of senior citizens and clear up and clean up the movies shown on buses, which are often too violent, graphic or otherwise mature for children.

Due to the fact that kids, not just adults, ride buses, only “GP” fare should be screened—a big improvement over past, unenlightened practice, when notoriously child-unfriendly flicks were brazenly and embarrassingly shown.

These and other proactive moves indicate that the MTRCB is serious about coming across as not just a punitive, restrictive body, but a partner of both viewers and TV people in their shared goal of protecting children from viewing fare that they aren’t fully prepared to assimilate and handle.

Upswing

Similarly noteworthy is the move on the part of an increasing number of film producers to come up with more movies at less cost to keep the local film business on its current upswing.

After “She’s Dating the Gangster” and “Once A Princess,” came “Somebody to Love” and “Talk Back and You’re Dead.”

It’s instructive to note that most of these new films are aimed at the youth or teen market, which has the numbers to generate hits (“Gangster” has grossed more than P250 million to date).

The next big step that we should all strive to take is to figure out a practicable way to enable our many fine “indie” productions to regularly reach a wider audience, after making their mark in festivals, where only a  relative few are able to watch them.

We do have a couple of regular cinemas that screen indies, but they haven’t fared all that well, so new initiatives are needed to help  indie producer-directors not just to recoup their investment, but also make enough money to keep producing  more good movies—hopefully, with rising levels of quality in both content and technicals.

This key objective has yet to be attained, despite the best efforts of quite a number of people, so it looks like new alliances have to be explored. Do you have any bright brainstorms in this regard?