adventures in neverland

of course i have done it before. bitch countless of times about the state of philippine cinema. of how producers offered nothing but vapid, vacuous, mindless, stupid, crappy movies. i especially reserve my most venomous and villainous remarks in december, when the entire country is plagued and held hostaged by the metro manila film festival and all that the local cineplexes can offer are the entries to this horrendous event that has become synonymous with trashy movies through the years. but i have gone tired of it. instead of bitching about it, i supported worthy movies that are shown during the cinemalaya, cinemanila, cinefilipino and other festivals that featured indie films made by upstart artists and lovers of cinema. these are the filmmakers who put their craft above everything else, money included. these are the artists who are willing to suffer for their works, for their goal of uplifting the state of philippine cinema. i also bought dvds (not pirated) of quality...

the year two thousand and thirteen is proving to be a great year for lovers of philippine cinema. after a good harvest at the cinemalaya in late july to early august (please click  here  to read about some of my cinemalaya reviews),  came the sineng pambansa national film festival all-masters edition (whew!) and the first cinefilipino film festival. the last two festivals, held one week apart in september, also featured films that were beyond the ordinary. if vilma santos heralded the cinemalaya festival, her erstwhile rival as queen of philippine cinema nora aunor was clearly the biggest come on of the cinefilipino festival. coincidentally (or not!), if ms. santos' entry at the cinemalaya festival, ekstra, was the top grosser in terms of box-office receipts, ms. aunor's ang kwento ni mabuti likewise earned the most among the cinefilipino entries. so whoever said that both actresses' luster at the box-office had diminished through the years is probably hal...