Articles
Filipino International Film Festival L.A. 2009
Almost didn’t happen!
It’s true. Anything and everything that could possibly go wrong did. Filipino International Film Festival Los Angeles (FIFFLA) had a simple game plan, to find a time and place to showcase Filipino films. Why not? All other ethnicity groups in Hollywood had their own film festival. Filipinos are only the second largest Asian group in America. Filipinos have been in this country for hundreds of years. You can go to any part of the world and run into a Filipino. In essence we are truly global people. So why are we still missing from mainstream media? I don’t know but my hope is that having our own film festival in the entertainment capital of the world will help in some way.
FIFFLA wanted to showcase Filipino films and Filipino talent and highlight our achievements from the past, present and give a glimpse into our future. We wanted to show the world that we can make as good of films as any. FIFFLA also wanted to focus more on Indie films that the Philippines are getting recognized for globally. It’s like we are going through another renaissance period that we haven’t seen the likes of since the times of de Leon, Brocka and Bernal.
You would think with a game plan in hand and over a year to prepare, things would come easy. It was quite the contrary, believe it or not. Sure we had people telling us that they were elated at what we were doing and so proud of us. We also had people that didn’t believe in the project and our vision and therefore couldn’t care less. They asked, “Why? What for?” We had to do a lot of convincing, but like anything in life you have to prove it first, and so we did.
Two trips were made to the Philippines in a span of three months to present FIFFLA to all the top producers, studio heads, government officials, directors, writers, actors, and media. It was all business. It was the first time I had personally gone to the Philippines and didn’t do anything other than work. I was shocked by all the things I had learned about how the entertainment business works in the Philippines which is far different from what I know of how things are in Hollywood. At the same time, I had a great opportunity to meet among the best filmmakers from the Philippines who are also some of the nicest people I have ever met. People in the industry there work so diligently, further motivating me to do this film festival. So I quit my 8-5 job to focus solely on FIFFLA and ensure that everything was done right.
I now had films. FIFFLA was only two months away but I still didn’t have any sponsors and everything was coming out of my own pocket. I had three devoted people in L.A., three more in Seattle and one in the Philippines who were volunteering their time. I made them into believers not knowing how much harder it was going to get from this point on.
We lost our venue. What we thought was a sure thing ended up being our biggest problem. You see after coming up with the idea of FIFFLA securing a venue was the second thing I did. Los Angeles Theater Center (LATC) assured me that everything was OK and that we wouldn’t have any problems. We even did a promo spot at the LATC in June promoting FIFFLA and LATC for our website. A month before the film festival, LATC all of a sudden didn’t know who we were. You see they had a little internal mix-up and somehow we got caught in the web. I even had a letter from the Director of LATC saying he was looking forward to working with us and welcoming us to their venue. So what was once promised to us by people that worked there was now gone. We had no choice but to look for another venue. Easier said than done because it took us two weeks to find another location and I still didn’t have any sponsors. At this point I was all out of money.
So we reached a point of no return because tickets were selling weeks before LATC was lost. I had so many people flying in from out of town and the Philippines so moving the dates to secure a venue was not an option. Then a break came through and we found a place in Hollywood that had the dates and the space we were looking for with a possible sponsor that would pay for the venue. Perfect. We started printing flyers and posters. We sent out a press release announcing FIFFLA and the new venue. The week of the film festival we still had not secured the new venue because we were waiting on the sponsor. Well, the sponsor didn’t come through and we had a deadline of Wednesday morning to either pay for the place or lose it….we lost it. That Wednesday was one of the most challenging and stressful day of my life. Here I was two days until opening night with 10 feature films and 16 short films and no venue. I said to myself that this was it; I was left with no choice. Suck up my pride and cancel FIFFLA.
Later on that day as a last minute effort we called LATC to check if the space was available and luckily it was. But it was going to cost us an arm and a leg, $8,500 to be exact. We came up with $3,500 as down payment from borrowed money and LATC was gracious enough to let us pay the rest in payments after the festival. Money I still owe. We also had to get insurance or LATC would not allow us to have the film festival. Luckily, we got insurance two hours before the opening night film.
I felt it necessary for me to explain why we had to keep changing venues. I wanted everyone to know that it was out of my control and I did the best I could.
I was still amazed that we had people show up for opening night after all the changes. We showed the film “Jose Rizal,” starring Cesar Montano and directed by Marylou Diaz-Abaya, which GMA Films was kind enough to allow us to screen one time for its 10th year anniversary. I knew I did right when a patron came out crying after the movie and thanked me for showing the film. She said that living in America made her forget about our national hero and the sacrifices he made. That made my night.
The next two matinee days were all day affairs with two movies going on simultaneously. We showed short films and documentaries from University of the Philippines Film Institute; short films from all over the U.S. and one as far away as Ireland; independent feature films from the Philippines, such as “Hilot”, “Tribu”, “Ang Manghuhula”, “Fidel” and classics such as “Dekada 70”, “Eskapo” and “Himala,” thanks to Star Cinema.
Our center piece film was the west coast premier of “Brown Soup Thing,” directed by Edward John Mallilin. It was a Fil-Am movie that had mainly an L.A. cast, so everyone came out for the screening.
We also had a roundtable panel Q&A sponsored by the PABA Foundation where we discussed Filipinos in Hollywood. Our guest moderator was Hollywood actor Rob Schneider who led our panel of Filipino actors, writers and directors in a discussion on how we can make a bigger impact in the movie industry. Rob Schneider was very supportive and was open to helping Filipinos break into mainstream Hollywood.
Our closing night film “Tambolista,” directed by Adolfo Alix Jr. was unfortunately confiscated by U.S. Customs two days before opening night because it was not properly labeled and they thought it was a pirated DVD. Even after showing our credentials they still couldn’t allow it to pass. The director was kind enough to send another film though FedEx Priority but it still didn’t arrive until that Monday. We replaced it with another film but even until the last day we faced problems. Our patrons that did show up were very supportive and grateful and we finally had our own Filipino film festival to call our own.
Through all of our hardships and sacrifices we still managed to pull it off. I am grateful that people still showed up. I am grateful at all of our volunteers who helped out. Thank you to all of our staff, without them none of this would be possible. Thank you to LATC for helping us out. Thank you to our lawyer, Marsha Dungog and the PABA Foundation, for guiding us. Thank you to all of our sponsors. Of course a big thanks to our filmmakers and the studios for entrusting us with their films.
In the end, all we wanted to do was show films to try and take Filipinos to the next level. We will continue to do all we can to showcase our very best here in Hollywood. All we need is that one film to get us noticed in mainstream Hollywood. I hope having a festival like ours will only help.
FIFFLA is a non-profit organization. The next FIFFLA will take place from October 14-17, 2010. Please continue to visit our website at www.fiffla.org for updates and announcements. If you have any questions or comments I can be reached at jeff@fiffla.org.
Jeff Solema
Festival Director and Founder of FIFFLA