By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

HOW many times have you watched a movie and shifted to another in less than thirty minutes? There are others I’ve watched as a series, which are too long, and I quit in the middle, or almost at the end, knowing how predictable the outcome is. They assault logic and sensibility.

For example, I could not understand why a protagonist, especially if she is a woman, with a normal brain, can be clueless about plots against her, helpless and “dumb” all the way till kingdom come, when all the others around her, know. Where had her “woman’s intuition” gone? Did she lose her critical thinking while walking on the street? Also, I could not understand why, in the comfort of their homes, women are wearing high heels!

In the dialogues, some movies explain the whys and the hows of actions being taken, robbing the audience of the thinking that should be part of the pleasure of watching. They reveal as much as they reveal too much skin, in places and circumstances where bobbing boobs and buttocks are not the normal dress code.

Some movies defy logic in the way the characters evolve. For example, a poor family seeking revenge for a misdeed that made them financially incapable, with almost nothing to buy medicines for a sick member, suddenly have the capacity to hire kidnappers, a van and the sophistication to run the operation without being caught by law enforcers.

And then, there’s too much violence that make the characters severely wounded, get up, get even, without dying a natural death. So unreal and defiant, making heaven, or hell, wait forever.

Incredible, I say. But I have to watch to see why these movies are “trending” in this country, lavishly produced, but using the same overused concepts and storylines.

We have to grow our audience. To do this, we must breed filmmakers with the sensitivity, creativity, cultural consciousness and technical expertise that would produce cohesive, compelling and entertaining stories whose impact can last for generations. Not only filmmakers, but enlightened copywriters, storytellers, scriptwriters, cinematographers and others involved in the overall production of the movie.

The TV series must be subjected to the same scrutiny and revival, because more than the movies, the audience watch them daily. The messages they convey are etched repeatedly, as women watch them while multi-tasking at home with their children, who also watch them. This cycle of “educating” women under very sexualized and patriarchal plots, idiotize the mind and disempower women.

Sometime in November, Charlie Samuya Veric sent me a message, “May I know if you will be willing to fill out a short survey for skills that you look for in development work? We are doing market research for our lit programs at Ateneo and we will be glad to get your help.” Specifically, it is a “research study aimed at (1) establishing Ateneo De Manila’s Program in Literary and Cultural Studies, (2) reviewing its MA in Literary in Cultural Studies Program (MA LCS), and (3) restructuring its PhD in English Language and Literature Program (PhD ELL).”

Efforts such as this inspire. Research to improve course offerings in literary and cultural studies, is one way of addressing the gaps, and will certainly help grow the consciousness of the viewing and the reading public.

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