10 January 2011

The type of sex that doesn't sell anymore.

You don’t see much of it these days on TV.  Before, you’d have a group of actors doing the rounds of TV programs promoting their latest movie.  And almost always, they’d say the same things:  Panoorin ninyo po ito.  Para sa lahat, pampamilya.  May comedy, drama, action.  (Go, see it.  It’s family fare.  It’s got everything – comedy, drama, action).  That was quite harmless.   The annoying thing was:  May aral po kayong mapupulot dito.  May moral lesson po. (You’d learn from this movie.  It has a moral lesson to tell.) 

I grew up with priests all around me, and I knew every moral lesson from catechism class.  I certainly didn’t want my movie to be a two-hour-long sermon.  I thought, and I still maintain that, feature film as art has no other purpose but to entertain, bring us face-to-face with human truths (heightened or verité), or delectably examine human emotion.  If you want to preach, do a docu.  Or, wait till Easter Week to stage your cenaculo.

But if it unwittingly amplifies an urgent issue, and inspire you to take action, I guess it’s all right.  It still has to entertain, though.

The wild, funny, provocative, political, complex, sometimes indulgent 'Angels in America' 

Which brings me to an issue that is rarely tackled in movies today, that has a lot of moral underpinnings:  AIDS.  I can only name a few important ones – Longtime Companion, Philadelphia, Angels in America, Rent.  In the 90s, there were two from the Philippines: The Dolzura Cortez Story and The Sarah Jane Salazar Story.  A digital film entitled H.I.V. starring Jake Cuenca and Iza Calzado was purportedly shown last year.  But did anyone catch it?

The spate of films in the 80s through the 90s was an indication of how much a pandemic it was.  HIV infections in the States have declined in the last few years on account of available HIV-related treatments and health education.  However, in the Philippines, reported cases of AIDS cases has risen to alarming levels (from 528 in 2008 to 709 in 2009).  Those afflicted are mostly young urban professionals (gay and straight) who contracted the disease through sexual engagements in the workplace.  It is happening at a time where AIDS has become a non-issue in media, in pop culture.  Doesn’t sex sell anymore?

Sad, isn’t it?  Sadder, because the threat and prevention of HIV/AIDS is not even discussed in catechism class.   The moral lessons would likely deny sympathy for the afflicted, and the reality of arousal.

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