A woman and her son were deeply engrossed watching a movie during Cinemanila's Sine Barangay open air screenings at the Marikina River Park last 20 November 08

I was in the Marikina River Park last 20 November for Cinemanila’s pilot project Sine Barangay which aimed to bring Philippine independent films to the masses. I was looking at the possibility of having this as one of my photo documentary proposals for my Diploma in Photojournalism’s final project and was assessing on how to do it.

I finally decided last Saturday not to include this one because of the time frame and the uncertainty of schedules for other venues that might prove to be difficult when additional shots will be needed and there will be no more events. However, while looking at the photos of that night, one idea struck me: why not do a documentary on the movie watching habits of Filipinos? Or something to that effect.

We love movies and entertainment. We go to screenings be it from the spectacular IMAX at Mall of Asia to the airy venue of a neighbor’s garage converted to a small theater overun with mosquitoes. We patronize the expensive DVDs in specialty video stores to sweating it out in the thriving Qiuapo film school that has a better selection of titles from all over the world. Or we shriek and scream at the sight of popular actors and actresses during a local movie’s premiere night or queue diligently to a number of film festivals organized by Cinemanila and by various embassies during their country’s cultural celebrations.

This would be a wonderful topic to work on but not as prioritized as my course’s final projects.

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