Despite the pouring rain, the lobby of the CCP main theater was packed last night for the opening ceremony of Cinemalaya 2009.
I can’t really say much about the program as we were stashed away in the south entrance of the CCP the whole time until it was time for us to go onstage.
When the time came, we were taken by a vintage beetle converted into a limousine to the main driveway of the CCP.
One by one, after showing our respective trailers, they announce our names. We step out of the limo, followed by cameras on CCTV while we walk to the entrance and onto the stage where we take a bow at the center amidst applause.
It reminded me of curtain call after a performance during my theater days. Oy. What a feeling.
Some of my fellow filmmakers were uneasy with the idea of the celebrity treatment — taking us by limo and putting us in the spotlight like that. They say it’s against the spirit of indie filmmaking. But I personally think that after all the effort that we put and all that we went through to make our films, we deserve it.
Cheers to sir Nes Jardin for his cool ideas and for making Cinemalaya a reality!
(L-R) filmmaker alvin yapan, CCP president nes jardin, ana agabin, alvin's producer alem ang