PHILIPPINE CINEMA: NO SHORTAGE OF PERSONAL VOICES

Award-winning filmmaker Carlos Siguion-Reyna looks forward to revitalizing the country’s independent film industry as the new Competition and Monitoring Committee chairman.

He assumed the position vacated by director Jose Javier Reyes, who is now serving as the new chairman of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).

“I have to get into transition mode. Basically, a lot of that is making sure na ma-implement kung ano ‘yung naka-plan for 2024,” said Siguion-Reyna when asked about his first order of business. “Right now, I’m getting to know the landscape of this year’s Cinemalaya Film Festival.”

Aside from that, he will run the Cinemalaya Film Lab for 2025, where he will be “guiding the 20 semi-finalists and helping them complete the scripts that would be chosen for next year’s competition.”

His connection to Cinemalaya runs deep. Siguion-Reyna taught a combination of 13 writing and directing courses at the Singapore campus of the New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for seven years. During his summer breaks in August, he would return to the Philippines and get involved with Cinemalaya.

His feature film Hari ng Tondo (Where I Am King) received the Special Jury Prize in the Directors’ Showcase category of the 10th Cinemalaya in 2014. He also served as a jury member of the Cinemalaya film competition in 2013 and 2015.

The new competition chairman remains as the head and program director of the Cinemalaya Institute, the educational arm of the annual biggest independent film festival. Since 2015, he has been giving workshops and conducting film direction courses at the Institute.

“By 2015, when my stint at NYU was about to finish, I got a call from Cinemalaya president Laurice Guillen. She asked if I would be interested — and I was interested — to run a workshop on filmmaking. So, we started the Cinemalaya Institute,” Siguion-Reyna said.

The six-week workshop offers five masterclasses on Basic Filmmaking: The Silent Film; Screenwriting; Production Management; Film Editing; and Cinematography. Its faculty are members of New York University’s (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts Asia’s M.F.A. program in film in Singapore, headed by Siguion-Reyna.

“That went on every year for about five years and then the pandemic hit so we couldn’t continue. We talked about reviving the Cinemalaya Institute, regularly and face-to-face. I hope to get back to that by next year,” shared the veteran filmmaker-mentor.

Being the competition and monitoring chairman was not exactly planned. Siguion-Reyna’s gradual participation through the years led him to see and appreciate the original and evolving vision of Cinemalaya — as an organization, as a foundation, and as a film festival.

“It got me interested, not only in independent-minded, personally-voiced films but also in education through the Cinemalaya Institute. I thought it was a place I was comfortable in, where I could contribute something. So that’s why when I was asked by Direk Laurice to be the competition chairman, I immediately said yes,” shared Siguion-Reyna.

For Siguion-Reyna, the future is bright for Cinemalaya. He wants to maximize the wealth of Philippine materials from different regions. “There is no shortage of personal voices. Considering the challenges we as a nation are going through, our internal and external affairs, and how they affect our attitudes and conditions as citizens in this country — there is no shortage of things to talk about, to make films about.”

Siguion-Reyna has done 13 feature films; some of which have won in various international film festivals in San Diego, Toronto, Newport Beach, Berlin and Singapore, and local film awards Gawad Urian, FAP Awards, FAMAS Awards, and Young Critics Circle Awards.

“Everybody has different experiences and there’s a lot of variety in experiences, in where people come from.”