Award-winning director Erik Matti slammed the inclusion of Vice Ganda’s movie “Praybeyt Benjamin” in the upcoming Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF)
In a series of Facebook posts, the director of popular Filipino movies like “Gagamboy” and “Honor Thy Father” expressed disappointment that MMFF still put Praybeyt Benjamin in the cinemas next Christmas.
“Bagsak na nga ang pelikula, sumara na ABS, Praybeyt Benjamin pa rin palabas sa Pasko? Walang nagbago a! Kinangkina!” Matti said.
“5 months lockdown. Thousands of content binged. Biggest network closes. Praybeyt Benjamin. We never learned,” he added.
In another lengthy post, Matti became more specific about his complaint about the current movies being shown in cinemas.
“The initial thoughts I had, as a filmmaker, was to go back to basics. Small crew, small stories, personal, light and relevant. And true enough, with the many limitations on safety and health, I think that’s the way to go. And given how small it will be, the filmmaker now is afforded the chance to refresh storytelling techniques and dramatic structures hopefully giving birth to something new that everyone can welcome from all these months of drudgery,” Matti said.
“But I maybe overthinking it too. Maybe going back to normal is just that, going back to how we were before all these. Same old, same shit. Maybe the way to go is just presume nothing has changed and everyone still wants the same things. Same plotlines, same rehashed stories, same piks and paks, same copies of things that worked out there,” he added.
“Maybe my age is just thinking something should change in the industry I work in. But maybe the entire country thinks it should just stay the same. Or maybe too, no one really cares whether we change or not. There are more important basic things that need change that tv and movies are not really on that list,” he also said.
Praybeyt Benjamin 1 (2011) earned 332 million pesos while Praybeyt Benjamin 2 (2014) earned 455 million pesos.
Vice Ganda, who’s planning to launch his own network has yet to comment on Matti’s criticisms.
This is not the first time that Matti criticized MMFF movies.
In 2018, Matti made a short tweet, saying how bad movies in the Philippines are earning big amount of money.
“In a perfect world, bad movies don’t make money. In our world though, that’s all that makes money.” Matti said.
In a perfect world, bad movies don’t make money. In our world though, that’s all that makes money.
— Erik Matti (@ErikMatti) December 23, 2018
Matti also received criticisms last April after he questioned why the top ten Netflix shows in the Philippines were made by Koreans.
“The daily top ten most viewed on #Netflix shows us how our movies and tv are doomed in the future. K-drama galore. Faux cinderella stories with belofied actors whiter than white. And it’s all about love in the midst of this pandemic,” Matti said.