The Birth of CINEMA
No less than Blessed John Paul II took cognizance of the overwhelming power of media, especially film, over the lives of people.
During his historic visit to Manila in the 80’s, he said,
“The image you film, the sounds you record, the programs you broadcast, cross every barrier of Time and Space… What people see and hear in your transmissions and commentaries heavily influence the way they think and act.”
Indeed, just as exploitative profit oriented groups can use film to cater to the moviegoers’ baser instincts, without considering their moral well-being, so can more concerned entities like Church based organizations employ the same to enlighten viewers through an intelligent assessment of film based on gospel values.
For this purpose, the Catholic Initiative for Enlightened Movie Appreciation (CINEMA) was created as a special advocacy project of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Office on Women. Launched on July 14, 2000 as the CBCP Office on Women’s unique contribution to the Jubilee Year celebration, CINEMA is the movie classification and ratings board of the CBCP — the Church’s pro-active response to the proliferation of pornography, violence and other morally offensive issues in media, especially film, which then exploited women. Through CINEMA’s efforts which caught the attention and gained the cooperation and support of mainstream media and the government’s Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), the pornographic movies exploiting and victimizing women gradually faded away from the scene.
From being an advocacy project tasked to uphold the dignity of women in the film medium, CINEMA has grown to become a major player in the Church’s efforts at evangelization through media, so that now it assumes a greater role in the mission of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Social Communications (ECSC), particularly in leading to the New Evangelization.
Besides a corps of volunteer reviewers — lay people with training in film review and classification and media — CINEMA has an Executive Board. It is the first organization of its kind in the Philippines; only CINEMA considers in its reviews the moral implications in a film, and how these may influence viewers’ daily life in reality.
How ‘CINEMA’ has survived challenges
Every week CINEMA publishes the classifications, ratings and reviews of at least two (2) movies currently shown in Metro Manila.
Its reviews have been quoted, reprinted, and commented on in the country’s mainstream media. From its inception in 2000 to 2007, it distributed 1035 hard copies weekly, (excluding fax messages and emails of these releases) to the media, schools, religious institutions, Metro Manila parishes, all bishops and their dioceses throughout the country, non-government organizations, lay leaders in the local churches and government offices. The Philippine government’s Movie and Television Ratings and Classification Board (MTRCB) requests for its weekly copy. CINEMA also maintained a website until 2007. However, due to financial constraints, CINEMA had to drop the website and cease its printed publications in 2008.
To continue its work independent of economic difficulties, CINEMA has gone online. Reviews from March 2008 to May 27, 2018 may be viewed at www.cbcpcinema.blogspot.com. On May 28, 2019, CINEMA moved to its current address, https://medium.com.cbcpcinema (Updated May 25, 2019/TRT )
