For some serendipitous reason, I found myself invited as a member of the Jury at the 3rd Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) held in Jeonju, South Korea last summer. Upon arriving at the Incheon Airport, I already felt the festive atmosphere. The JIFF even had a booth at the airport for accommodating guests and inquiries. It was manned by a bunch of yellow-jacketed volunteers. Jeonju, sometimes spelled "Chonju", is pronounced somewhere in between these two versions. Though it sounds like the Tagalog word for monkey, "tsonggo", the place definitely was no jungle or zoo.

GOOD-FOOD CAPITAL
Jeonju is famous in Korea for its scrumptious food. I was treated to a feast of traditional Korean cuisine. I liked their street food best and their their so-called "instant" noodles seemed fresh and delectable. Heck, even their Burger King and KFCs tasted better. But as I was beginning to discover, it's also becoming quite famous for its film festival. They have 5 oddly-cute festival mascots walking around; and as we drove down the streets, I saw drop-down streamers of the JIFF in every lamppost.

VOLUNTEER POWER
The main problem for a tourist is that few Koreans speak English. Almost everything is written in their alphabet. I was really thankful that I had an English-speaking volunteer who took care of my schedule, meetings and viewings. Sumin Kim, a business major based in Seoul, was one of the 200 volunteers for JIFF --- selected from over a thousand applicants. Talk about grassroots support!

CHANGE OF PLANS
Before I went there, I thought I would be able to write my new screenplay, study my car collision bible, watch the Pier Pasolini retrospective screening, and just take a break from the chaos of Manila. Needless to say, there was no new screenplay afterwards and not a single page read. I was able to party every other night, but then I had to wake up early in the morning, either for a meeting, an interview, or a screening. And no Pasolini films either. Luckily, Sumin was able to squeeze in a couple of Korean digital features into my tight schedule. Also, on the last day, I was able to get a 15-minute glimpse of all the available videos I was interested in.

DEATH BY MOVIE-WATCHING
Over a couple of days, I watched 15 digital films at eight different theaters. It was no mean feat. The Midnight Screening was a distinctive experience. Starting midnight until eight in the morning, one can watch four hardcore avant-garde films. I was reminded of last year's Halloween screenings at the back of the Manila Film Center that ran from sunset to sunrise, although here, I watched it inside an air-conditioned jumbo theater. The common thing though was that the cineaste spirit was present in both.

DIGITAL DARING AWARD
In the Digital Spectrum division wherein I judged, "Angel Exit" [Czech Republic] bagged the $5,000 prize for being the most challenging and experimental digital work. Vladimir Michalek's "Angel Exit" is what you can call a hallucinatory hell-ride on hallucinogens. Some of the other digital films in competition were Ethan Hawke's CHELSEA WALLS, Mike Figgis' HOTEL, Richard Linklater's WAKING LIFE, Jean-Marc Barr's TOO MUCH FLESH, and the Belgian Dogme film STRASS.

WOOSUK AWARD
In the Asian Newcomers category, "Brother" [Hong Kong] won the $10,000 prize for being the best film to define a new direction for Asian independent cinema. Yan Yan Mak's first feature-length film "Brother" is an existential allegory on what it means to live in Hong Kong nowadays. The Philippines had a lone entry in the festival - Mario O'Hara's "Demons" (a.k.a. "Pangarap Ng Puso"), which was too melodramatic for comfort.

KOREAN GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
After the festival, I woke up at dawn the next day and headed for Seoul to visit the Pusan International Film Festival office and the Korean Film Commision, also known as Kofic. Now on its seventh year, Pusan has established itself as the best film market in Asia. Kofic, on the other hand, is a much enviable masterwork. This government-funded institution gives away grants to support all aspects of filmmaking, from independent art films to mainstream commercial cinema, from shorts to full-lengths, from digital to 35mm, from students to professionals, from live action to animation, from development to scriptwriting, to production, post-production, distribution, even subtitling. They even have incentives for films, which have been invited to foreign film festivals.

PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT NON-SUPPORT
On the other hand, Raymond Red, the first and only Filipino to ever win in Cannes, paid for his own ticket to attend the said festival. The Philippine government got $100 from my $1000 prize in the Tokyo Video Festival way back in 1997. And I, the naive filmmaker then, absurdly and futilely asked, "Why?"

HOLLYWOOD INDIO
During my stay, the five top-grossing films in their cinemas were all local films. The closest foreign flick was "Shrek," which was sixth. I pondered the day that happens in the Philippines, which is currently a third-world annex of Hollywood junk food?

CONSTIPATED CINEMA
In order for the quality of our cinema to flourish, there has to be an increase in the quantity of the films being made. At first, I was boasting to the others about the number of short films being produced in the Philippines, and the equal number of independent filmmakers, until I found out that the total local short film equalled the number of short films Korea churns out every year!

STRIKE OUT
In Korea, it turns out, they have a handful of film universities. Here, we have none. We patiently await Mowelfund's full bloom, while we make do with the film programs of UP and La Salle. Let's not talk about the local full-length films anymore and humiliate ourselves by exalting them - one good film a year (Mike De Leon & Doy Del Mundo's "Bayaning 3rd World," Bing Lao & Jeffrey Jeturian's "Tuhog," Lav Diaz's "Batang Westside") is a poor batting average.

DIGITAL TIGANG
In terms of Pinoy full-length indies via the digital age, after the birth sprout of five or so films in 2000, just a couple in 2001, and nada still in 2002, I could't help but ask - What is the Filipino filmmaker so afraid of? Where is the indio-genius hyper-creative free-spirit Kidlat Tahimik was talking about? Where's your film, Pinoy? I don't care if it's clean or coarse, high-tech or low-fi, simple or complex; I just wanna see your soul!

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