MTRCB chair presses for film fest reforms

VILLAREAL (fourth from left) with Lang, the author, Sandejas, Sogueco, Tarog and Villegas.

Last Feb. 22, we got an invitation to meet with Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) Chair Eugenio “Toto” Villareal to discuss improvements in the controversial Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).

Together with board member Milo Sogueco, producer Moira Lang and directors Mike Sandejas, Dan Villegas and Jerrold Tarog, lawyer Toto talked about the intricacies of how the festival was run from the legal standpoint, to its current state—and we eagerly listened to the Ateneo law professor.

With only a few months left in office (his term is coterminous with the President), he said he’d like to push for “good” cinema.

He asked, “Why don’t we take after Korea—which screens only Korean films for 70 days within a year? In China, no more than 24 foreign films are screened annually.”

Villareal has been active at hearings in Congress about the MMFF, and as part of the execom that hopes to initiate reforms. “If ever there is a law we will be helping out with in Congress, we have to pray that the congressmen behind this (MMFF investigation) will be reelected.”

The bottom line? “Kailangan, everybody happy!”