isit any of the cinema multiplexes in Metro Manila malls and you may be hard-pressed to find a Filipino movie being shown. Scan the titles and they're mostly Hollywood blockbusters, with a sprinkling of European and Asian films. So where have all the Pinoy films gone?

The 1950's and 60's seem to have been golden decades for the Philippine movie industry. The major studios like Sampaguita Pictures and LVN were bursting at the seams with star talent, while its fans seemed to have an insatiable appetite for drama and comedy...and more drama and more comedy.

But it seems that there were always forces that conspired to clip the wings of this nascent industry and prevent it from ever soaring. First, there was the United States. American culture pervaded every facet of Philippine Society...and Hollywood movies were seen as the best of the best. The most any Filipino movie could ever hope to rate was as an also-ran, copy-cat film.

The second reason the Philippine movie industry was doomed from the start was because of the highly stratified Philippine society. The rich and well-off, including the middle class never really patronized the local movie industry. Thus box-office receipts came mostly from those in the lower strata of society--the so-called "bakya crowd" who enjoyed  "Tagalog movies."

Third: because the movie industry has had to cater to the tastes and standards of the so-called "bakya crowd," the quality and content of its products reflected that bias. Storylines were unimaginative and predictable, comedy was slapstick, and the acting was either mediocre or overly dramatic.

Fourth: since the late seventies, the industry has become a magnet for all sorts of unsavory characters--pimps, gangsters, cross-dressing homosexuals, and the like--further diminishing its chances of gaining acceptance from the more respectable segments of society.

Lastly, much of  the industry's bad practices have now exacted their toll. Most Filipino movies were mass produced; cranked out in a week or two, with cookie-cutter plots and a predictable mixture of comedy, sex, drama and star-value so as to do well at the box-office. Producers were averse to innovation or risk taking. Formulas that worked well in the past were simply re-hatched over and over again.

It is no surprise then that this industry is dying. A few of us can't wait for its demise, so a new and better Filipino film industry can be born and start making movies for ALL Filipinos.

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