On Sunday night, August 10, at the 2014 Cinemalaya Awards at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Cinemalaya Foundation president Nestor Jardin apologized to filmmakers in his opening remarks.
“The night before independent film festival Cinemalaya’s awarding ceremonies, several Pinoy filmmakers were shocked to find their films uploaded in full and for free on the video sharing website YouTube,” reports Jessica Bartolome on GMA News Online.
Jardin was quoted as saying, “We wish to publicly apologize to the filmmakers and producers of Batch 2012 and 2013 for the uploading of their films on YouTube. Again, our deep apologies. Your support has kept Cinemalaya alive and vibrant.”
The report noted that shortly after the organizers received complaints about the uploads, this message was posted on the Cinemalaya Facebook page: “Only half an hour ago we got wind of the fact that Cinemalaya films were uploaded by Janssen Agbada, technical personnel of the Cinemalaya website yesterday. We apologize for this situation which we had no idea of nor were we aware of what or who caused or gave instruction for her to upload the films.”
Then, sometime after the apology was posted, the Facebook account was shut down.
Photo: Transit
