Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Attacking Gay Films



Through the Philippine Cinema yahoo group, I read an email from an "award winning" yet jobless script writer appealing for directors and producers to take a look at his work.

And he begins to tell producers to consider "sensible" materials instead of "pambakla" (the gay themes). Needless to say, I am peeved by this attack on gay cinema.

This "award winning" writer apparently has not heard of Cinemalaya, Cinema One, NCCA and other institutions that fund materials worthy to become films.

As I retorted in my email, go ahead and make movies but don't you dare point a dirty finger on gay cinema. Our gay cinema, a collection of films from the remarkable to the forgettable, from the pornographic to the sublime -- whatever they may be, they are representative of stories from people who have less power in Philippine society.

It is through gay cinema that we, gay men learn from each other's lives, enjoy and appreciate our stigmatized sexuality and understand our own unique issues, concerns and life stages.

And for this reason, only a sociologically ignorant individual will try to put a stop to gay cinema.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

isang malakas na tili, TAMA KA DYAN.. walang basagan ng trip.hehehe.go go go lex.. kanya kanya lang yan...

TBR said...

good call. who is this award-winning scriptwriter? he deserves to be named.

Anonymous said...

name the bitch!!!

josh_ivan_fan said...

well-said.

LoF said...

is this about Butch Maddul's dumbass reply to Christian Tablazon's casting call on ph-filmsociety yahoo group? or another incident?

Suffern AC said...

I would think that the pool of directors and funders for gay films would be different from that of independent films. Some overlap, but not much. The Philippines has (perhaps) the most vibrant gay cinema in Asia, but how many films does it actually produce each year? And of those, how many would have been produced if they weren't gay films because the producers are interested in making gay films? Just a guess, but if the Philippines were still producing 200 films per year as it did 40 years ago, the same number of films would be produced in gay cinema as is produced now. Another guess... most of the gay films that get produced are made at the expense of other gay films that are rejected, not at the expense of "sensible" films.

david said...

well put, lex.

gede said...

amen. This is one of the major reasons why i highly value our friendship. salute.

Anonymous said...

alam nyo po ok lang sana ang mga gay movies e kase at least nabibigyan ng ibang work mga guys na sex workers diba,,hehe,,kaya lang minsan ,..oa at sobra na ,parang alam mo na na yun at yun lang ang bentahe,,.kaya nga lagi kong sinasabi e,,porno na kung porno,,wag ng pa safe o kay harang pa,,ang matino o quality na gay movie ay hindi mo sya tatawaging gay movie,its just simply a movie din,,,na walang sex scenes at maayos ang pagkagawa at atake ng gay storyline nya,..mas hanga ako sa mga gay movies na wlang sexy scenes na tinutumbok nito ang buong movie at concept,,.pero sabi ko nga,.,karamihan sa mga indie gay movies ya,,,.pang pasttime o palipas libog lang,,na ok din naman,,..yun lang,,,uncut version naman,,,wahahhah,,....at sana request ko lang,,asan na yung movie na HALIK SA TUBIG,.yung trailer,..at anong bago s amga cappucinos,,new hard more daring movies??,

Anonymous said...

i agree to that....