How does Mother Lily solve a problem like a movie slump?

I won't be surprised if gay advocates react vehemently to the way the Aruba Restaurant in Metrowalk treated one of their kind, Inday Garutay.

Inday told me that last week she was refused entry by the restaurant because she was in drag. The diner's management explained they have a policy against cross-dressing. Inday says she was utterly humiliated, particularly because she was with his boyfriend.

"That was clearly a case of discrimination," Inday says. I don't know of any other establishment that bans cross-dressers. Perhaps this is something gay rights advocates should look into.

* * *

Mother Lily Monteverde seems to be in a roll. Regal's Blue Moon won four major plums in the recent Star awards for Movies-Best Picture, Best Director (Joel Lamangan), Best Screenplay (Allan Tijamo) and Production Design (Joey Luna).

Mother Lily promises to produce more films, her way of pulling the movie industry out of the slump it's now in.

Getting very much involved in Regal's projects is Mother Lily's daughter Roselle, who has come home to help run the family business.

Regal films have 4 of the 10 slots in the Metro Manila Film Festival-Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah, Mano Po 5, Super Noypi and Shake, Rattle and Roll 8.

Blue Moon, which was entered in last year's MMFF, was also a big winner in the festival.

* * *

The Cinema Evaluation Board hasn't received the appeal of MTL Films for its movie Batas Militar. The movie failed to get a rating after it was screened by 12 members of the board last Wednesday.

And even if the board's secretariat accepts the appeal, it's not likely that it will get a grading at all. Under the board's rules an action for reconsideration is "limited only to upgrading from B to A."

Depending on the grade, a film is entitled to a rebate in the amusement tax. The film's director, Jess Lapid, is wondering why Batas Military failed to make the grade. "Are tax rebates limited only to drama and comedy?" he says. "What is the board's criteria?"

For the benefit of Direk Jess Lapid, here is how the board evaluates a movie:

1. Direction - effective, focused and insightful integration of the different cinematic arts and crafts involved in a production, utilizing the unique strengths of the medium to dynamically depict the film's meaning and intent.

2. Screenplay - a detailed scenario containing dialogue, actions and general atmosphere to be incorporated into the finished motion picture. A superior screenplay contains a blueprint in words of an intense and imaginative vision of the world.

3. Cinematography - creative use of key elements of the film medium's visual language-lighting, composition, movement, camera techniques-to dynamically depict, theme, story and character as they relate to the production's significant intent.

4. Edition - the creative use of tempo, transitions, tonal changes and other editing techniques to provide the movie with the unique visual energy and style it needs to develop its plot and theme in cinematic terms.

5. Production Design - the effective, appropriate and imaginative representation of locale, period, atmosphere, costumes, make-up, hairstyles and props as they relate to character, story and style to actualize the film's significant objective.

6. Music Score - the creative and appropriate use of music to enhance emotion, moods and atmosphere, help define character, and establish rhythm and pacing, in furtherance of the film's creative intent.

7. Sound - the effective and creative interplay of dialogue, music, natural sound and recorded sound effects to give the films the aural values to generate audience empathy.

8. Performance - the clear, honest and stylistically consistent depiction of character, emotion, motivation, and personal and societal relationships, resulting in the creation onscreen of people whom viewers can understand and empathize with.

A movie with a Grade A rating gets 100% rebate, a Grade B film, 65%. This year, 10 out of 13 films got CEB grading-Don't Give Up On Us, I Will Always Love You, Close To You, Moments of Love, Pamahiin, All About Love, Kapag Tumibok and Puso, Mainit na Tubig, Pacquiao The Movie and I Wanna Be Happy. All were graded B.