Movie research made easy

In this country with very poor archival sense, doing research work can be very frustrating due to scarcity of available materials.

Those doing research on film can search on the Internet, but the facts there aren’t always complete. For the longest time, I’ve been running to the old-timers for information, except that a lot of them are already starting to have memory lapses and can no longer remember the little details.

Most difficult is when you are trying to get a listing of the cast members of a particular film — its scriptwriter, director and technical staff (film editor, production designer, cinematographer, etc.). The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino has taken care of that — at least for the films released in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

In the early ‘80s, Manunuri founding member Dr. Nicanor Tiongson started working on the Urian anthology — a compilation of the reviews and film articles written by Manunuri members. It was Manuel Morato who published the book, which I’m afraid will no longer see reprinting (I can imagine all the plates must have been lost by now). But it is a very useful (and significant) book — especially the listing of films released in the ‘70s, complete with cast credits at the end.

For the ‘80s Urian anthology, it was Tony Tuviera who published the book — complete with a grand book launch in September 2001 at the Tektite Towers in Ortigas. This anthology — now still available in local bookstores — also carries reviews by the Manunuri and toward the end is a listing of the films released in the ‘80s, plus the cast credits and brief synopses.

All these listings may seem inconsequential to some, but this come handy when writing an obituary on members of the industry who have moved on so that we can check their movie credits — and when we have to do other film researches. Compiling those listings could also be an arduous task.

Up to the mid-‘80s, the Screen Writers’ Guild of the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) also had a compilation of films released year after year, but that had to stop when the FAP ceased to be a priority of the government after the first EDSA revolution. The Manunuri will begin working on its ‘90s anthology soon, but that may take a while.

Meanwhile, it is the Philippine Film Export Services Office (PFESO) that is undertaking that job at the moment. This group is under the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), which also has under its umbrella organization the Cinema Evaluation Board (yes, the one that gives tax rebates to local films), the Film Fund, which gives loans to producers and the International Film Festival Committee. Rolando Atienza is the chairman and executive officer of the FDCP. 

The main function of the Philippine Film Export Services Office (created only about a year and a half ago) is actually to sell the Philippines as a location for foreign movies and so far they’ve already had some Japanese pictures shot here. Even Survivor Sweden and Survivor France had used the Philippines as a location and this was made possible through PFESO, which is headed by Digna H. Santiago.

Another one of the functions of PFESO is to sell local films abroad. This was why they came up with the Philippine Film Catalogue, which is a compilation of local movies released in 2007 and 2008 and even some in progress.

At any international film festival or market, you see, distributors always ask the Philippine representatives: What movies do you have? In the past, Ms. Santiago and her staff would have to go through the trouble of asking for materials from Regal, Viva, Star Cinema and GMA Films. Now, all they have to do is distribute copies of the Philippine Film Catalogue, which has everything you want to know about any local movie released in the past two years — complete with a handsome hardbound cover (even the color printing inside is lovely).

This catalogue surely wasn’t done overnight. According to special project assistant Luigi Verzosa (in all those occasions I’ve worked with him, he had always been very efficient), this project took some three to four months to complete. The bloodiest part for the people involved in this project was calling up each and every producer (a major undertaking since most of the indie filmmakers aren’t the easiest to find) and asking them to submit their posters, a list of their cast members and a brief synopsis of the film’s story.

But it was worth all the hard work. Today, the FDCP proudly gives away for free and at no cost to filmmakers the Philippine Film Catalogue to film people, scholars and more importantly to film distributors during festivals abroad, film market, conventions and trade missions.

In the recently-concluded Hong Kong Film Festival, the catalogue was distributed among the delegates who found it “very impressive.”

But if you ask this writer who often writes about film history and movies in the past, I have the perfect adjective to describe it: Useful. It is now my favorite working companion.