INDIE SINE: A Horizon for Reformed Politics and Society

Friday, 12 August 2011 00:00

Written by Aaron Benedict De Leon

For many years, I myself have been an artist performing on-stage, either for school based theater productions, or for professional theater companies. I’ve witnessed how cold and warm people have become for staged art, and I’ve also been victim of several shows with minimal to no audience at all. The fact is, for some reason, other forms of alternative art have outgrown theater. With the seemingly downward spiral in theater popularity is concerned came long the emergence of independent film-making. Independent films, produced by professionals and amateurs alike, usually are more reflective of the creative and artistic genius of writers and directors, unlike mainstream productions, serving to please the whims of various fan bases of certain celebrities. Most importantly, it is said that independent films expose our society to its various whims and weaknesses.

For the past few years, we have seen the growth in terms of the number of independent film producers investing in indie films, and we have seen quite a few of our mainstream actors jump once in a while to do an indie.

The bottom-line is that, people from the industry are starting to take not of independent film making. This is now an opportunity to attract a fan base to indie films because of the personalities taking part in it, and at the same time, to evoke and empower audiences with new though provoking messages and ideas about our society and our country.

This is a perfect opportunity for change-makers, and political activists to sound off their disapproval and discontent towards government. This is a mechanism that would allow civil society to attack social ills, without necessarily picking on specific people or personalities. We are hitting on the message, rather than on the subject.

We’ve seen how directors have echoed various messages through humor and drama through indie films, yet, they do not lavishly spend on promotions and public relations to come across audiences. In fact, some mainstream cinema productions have joined the bandwagon and distributed independent films that have attracted so many audiences.

This mechanism is cost effective, yet it comes as strong like a virus. Civil society has to be motivated to become creative and dynamic in the way they convey their messages, because it seems like the government has most often than not just ignored these calls for reform. The worst part about it is that the manner has not attracted the general public to support these calls for such. The general public has viewed these movements as overly serious, and too political.

Indie films can change that bias and stereotype. Through symbolisms, figures, characters, indie films have a way of touching the hearts and the consciousness of its viewers, and often the art itself reveals the very nature of the problems in society. The candidness of the shots, the closeness of the camera’s lens to the eyes of the character, portrays the level of seriousness of the movie towards situations, characters and even places.

And these things are not that difficult to communicate with the general public. Indie film making has also evolved in such a way that it has eased its treatment, from serious modes that seem to have alienated audiences in the beginning, to more artsy, humorous and creative forms which seem to have attracted the public’s eye. Imageries and Movements that represent our culture can easily be identified with indie movies, thus, the opportunity to stir inward reflection and introspection amongst viewers is quite high when the enticement is already drawn.

In the overall picture, you can see the power of visual art, emotional connection and mass appeal all come together as a recipe for renewing values and perspectives of the general public towards the art and society. The film “Ang Babae sa Septic Tank” is a classic example, as it was able to deliver humor and drama in one package, while echoing the lingering problem of poverty in the country. As a result, the film is the highest grossing Cinemalaya movie ever, and it has been distributed by local cinema production outfit Star Cinema to malls and cinema’s all over the country, and possibly other countries.

In as much as I would not want to favor indie films over theater, considering the archipelagic nature of our country, I feel that independent films has the more potential in terms of its reach to provinces and islands in our country, as far as communicating and evoking a sense of social consciousness amongst us Filipino’s is concerned.

Now that we’ve seen the potential of a good independent film, we, in the civil society, must now move towards exploring and using the medium of independent film making and production as an avenue to awaken and inspire young Filipino’s to be engaged and participative in the process of reforming our country.

It’s never too late for us to realize that only by recreating and reinventing our modes of nationalism, will we come across our countrymen, just as I hope that theater would also re-invent itself, to regain its long lost popularity, amongst our general public.