Direk Laurice’s Modern Magdalene Story

Santa-Santita, director Laurice Guillen’s modern Magdalene story starring Angelica Panganiban, follows a tough act in the tradition of winning scripts produced by Unitel Pictures. After the box office success and critical acclaim enjoyed by Unitel’s Crying Ladies, both here and abroad, Santa-Santita is somehow expected to duplicate, if not surpass that feat.

Producer Tony Gloria, who bankrolled the film with a whopping P25 million budget, remains optimistic that Santa-Santita will enjoy the same success as Crying Ladies. It will be great, though, if Santa-Santita also makes a killing at the tills. But for Tony, the most important thing is to make a film that he likes.

Santa-Santita is Laurice Guillen’s modern Magdalene story based on Jerry Gracio’s prize-winning screenplay in the Film Foundation of the Philippines’ scriptwriting competition four years ago. After the script won, Laurice immediately bought the rights to it – the first time she did such an act in her illustrious directorial career.

Santa-Santita stars Angelica Panganiban, who was chosen after a long search on who will play the title role. The sweet and cherubic-faced Angelica makes a big departure from her girl-next-door roles in her previous films to play the unruly teener Malen, who shifts from being a carefree young lady into a repentant mystic in Laurice’s latest masterpiece.

The other two main characters are Jericho Rosales as the devilish young man Mike and Johnny Delgado as the troubled priest Father Tony. Also in the cast are Hilda Koronel as Malen’s mom, a professional prayer woman, and Cherrie Pie Picache as Sister Dolor, a nun involved in social work.

Tony Gloria notes Santa-Santita shows a different Angelica and Jericho, who are not doing the usual roles they play in their previous screen assignments. The two faced their respective, risky challenges to play intense, offbeat roles and pulled it off impressively.

Even before its Nov. 17 playdate, Santa-Santita has created cinema buzz both in the local and international front. The film was invited to the Ninth Pusan International Film Festival in Korea as one of the 23 "outstanding projects" to be introduced in the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP). However, the print of the film did not make it on time for the said festival.

"We didn’t want to show a half-baked product," said Unitel Pictures’ Tito Velasco, who nonetheless still attended the film festival early this month. "But we still attended the festival to see where Filipino films of Unitel Pictures can fit in."

PPP is a project market for the latest Asian films which also allows filmmakers to find a co-financer or co-production partners. Last year, over a thousand professionals from over 35 countries attended and engaged in more than 500 pre-arranged meetings which yielded fruitful outputs in various forms. This year, PPP introduces an excellent choice of very promising projects by notable Asian filmmakers.

Tony also proudly informs that Santa-Santita is the first local motion picture to be filmed on high-definition Varicam-HD, similar to Michael Mann’s Collateral, starring Tom Cruise. HD was also the same technique used in the Milo Olympic commercial, which featured Philippine athletes such as basketball star Mon Fernandez, swimmer Christine Jacob, gymnast Bea Lucero and taekwondo champion Monsour del Rosario.

"You cannot whine all the time about privacy," Tony reasons out. "You just have to discover something new for your films. You should create your movie as a beautiful experience. The trailer alone should give viewers a compelling reason to anticipate and go watch the film. You should make movies that you’ll be proud to watch. It’s similar to cooking. When you cook something, you should be able to eat the food. The power is in our hands. We have control.

"With HD, you can make tuhog a scene for more than five minutes without the fear of running out on film. You can do digital grading on the film differently and manipulate the color of a certain scene, like Angelica’s dream sequences. We do our own post-production for our films, because we have the capability and the equipment."

Santa-Santita could have been one of the official entries in the 2004 MMFF in December. However, Tony decided not to field in any entries this year and will show the film instead on an earlier playdate this November.

Santa-Santita comes on the heels of Guillen’s critically acclaimed and award-winning films like Tanging Yaman in 2000 and American Adobo, which was filmed in New York (also produced by Tony Gloria) in 2002.

After Santa-Santita, Unitel Pictures will film Mark Meily’s Penitencia Republic with Robin Padilla as a nurse’s aid and driver who dreams of becoming an American citizen. The story happens during Holy Week and is interestingly told in pasyon form. The movie is expected to hit local theaters in February 2005. Unitel Pictures will also bankroll the Dolphy movie aptly titled Comedy King, to be directed by Jun Reyes and co-produced with Sharon Cuneta.

Meanwhile, Unitel Pictures’ award-winning production, Crying Ladies, was chosen by the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) as the official Philippine entry to the Oscars’ Best Foreign Film category. The directorial debut of Mark Meily is one of the 27 films vying for a slot in the said category. So far, no Philippine film has been chosen as finalist in the Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film, although other local productions were entered in the previous years – Tikoy Aguiluz’s Segurista (1996), Gil Portes’ Gatas… Sa Dibdib ng Kaaway (1999), Markova: Comfort Gay (2000), Saranggola (2001) and Mga Munting Tinig (2003).

Through Tony Gloria’s marketing and distribution arm, Unico Entertainment, Crying Ladies has made the rounds of commercial exhibition in the United States, where it earned rave reviews from foreign film critics. Last August, the film was also shown in the Montreal Film Festival’s Asian Cinema category, where it was also nominated in the audience award and first-time film director category for Meily. The film has been subtitled in English for its international audience.

Crying Ladies was Unitel Pictures’ official entry to last December’s Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), where it bagged five major awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. This year, however, Unitel Pictures has decided not to field in any entry to the MMFF. Recently, Crying Ladies was also honored by the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) as the Best Film produced last year.