Moments in Hong Kong

It was humbling. But it was well worth it.

This is how Jose Mari "Joey" Abacan, GMA 7 vice president, Program Management Department felt at the recently-concluded Hong Kong Film Festival, where he and other local filmmakers brought Moments of Love and other Pinoy films for exhibition.

Instead of PAs (production assistants) doing the (dirty) job for them, Joey and such industry luminaries like them – Regal’s Mother Lily Monteverde and daughter Roselle, Cinema Evaluation chair Christine Dayrit and Universal’s young video director Jeffrey Tan had only each other in the former British Crown Colony. So they rolled up their sleeves, got a pair of scissors and rolls of tape and started putting up the posters they brought with them.

Up went posters of Moments of Love, Muro-Ami and others.

Roselle herself placed info sheets of Regal movies in individual envelopes for display in the Film Development Council booth. Joey answered inquiries on Moments of Love from filmmakers from China, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and Switzerland who inquired about Moments. He made sure they saw the film’s trailer and went away with flyers Joey and his team prepared just before heading for the three-day filmfest.

"The responses are encouraging," Joey reports. "An Australian independent producer viewed Moments in my iPod and he expressed interest."

Hopefully, the Iza Calzado-Dingdong Dantes starrer can be shown on a TV channel that broadcasts nothing but international films in the Land Down Under soon.

Prospects for co-productions between GMA Films and foreign independent producers loom bright as Joey had one meeting after another with his counterparts in other countries. Judging from inquiries he got, the landscape looks just as rosy where the showing of Moments of Love on foreign TV and cable stations is concerned.

Joey admits he owes Mother Lily a lot for this.

"I learned a lot from her," he says. "She taught us how to stretch our production budgets way back since GMA Films came up with its first project – Let the Love Begin."

Also high on Joey’s list of people to thank are Unitel producer Tony Gloria and Kitchie Benedicto.

"I’d call on them to answer my questions while we were doing Let the Love Begin. And they were so accommodating," explains Joey.

Their pieces of advice, plus GMA Films’ willingness to try new ideas, however untried, spelled box-office success.

"Now, we feel it’s not bad to try something new," muses Joey. "It’s a matter of combining the daring of the young with the experience of those senior than us."

This principle will again apply in the young film outfit’s next project: a love drama that will recall the glossiness of movies we used to see when piracy hasn’t gobbled up much of the industry’s revenues yet.

If this means happy days are here again, then let’s not waste precious time. Let the cameras start grinding, and let the lights go up once more.