Facebook repost: Shared by Ed Finlan, August 11, 2013
Insightful reading.
"TRENDING IN "FILIPINO CINEMA".
Is television - the teleserye, the telemovie - the new cinema? I am making a few assumptions here:
1) That cinema includes all forms of mass media, hence it needs to include television; and
2) That popular cinema may be that medium which attracts the most number of viewers/followers, hence will have the power to engage its audience in most concerns that will relate to art/craft, as well as engage in issues of national import.
I must admit, that I am putting myself in slippery slope; most importantly, that I am not myself, a consumer of Philippine television, even though they are available online. Given that its ascendancy in mass consumption, say almost 20 yrs ago, the teleserye/telemovie (episodic, serial-novel aesthetic) came at a time of the decline of the movie industry, although the period also saw the surge of independent film which still has to attract a mass audience, I must say - therefore, the need for cinema critics to put this in a certain perspective and enjoin its artists/craftsmen and tv audiences in a healthy discourse for its flourishing as to eventually, give it merit, as dynamic and viable art form.
I was myself a young follower of GULONG NG PALAD/Wheel of fate (Loida Virina, creator, 1977-1985; 2006-2009 w Eric Salud, dir, ABS-CBN); and of late, three teleseryes have come to my mind as quite important: SA NGALAN NG INA/In the name of the mother (TV5, Mario O'Hara, Jon Red, dir, 2011) which marked the return of Superstar Nora Aunor to the Philippines and was O'Hara's last major work; BE CAREFUL WITH MY HEART (ABS-CBN, Mel Mendoza-del Rosario, creator; Jeffrey Jeturian, Mervyn Brondial, dir, 2012) will be the first teleserye to be made into a movie; and MY HUSBAND'S LOVER (GMA7, Suzette Doctolero, creator; Dominic Zapata, dir, 2013), the first gay-themed teleserye in Philippine tv.
Already, a lot of teleseryes have been exported to Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore), China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, enough reason why teleserye/telemovie needs critical support. Sige na/do it already! - Mauro Feria Tumbocon, Jr., FACINE Director (Thanks Mauro Feria Tumbocon Jr)