ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — There is no longer a shadow of a doubt that Filipino filmmakers are one of the best in the world.
Brillante Mendoza, Lav Diaz, Raya Martin and so many talented Pinoy filmmakers have won awards in Cannes, Berlin and Rotterdam, even beating competition from filmmaking royalty including Quentin Tarantino.
Their films have attracted critical acclaim all over the world and continue to enthrall foreign judges with their unique artistry.
The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) believes that if filmmakers’ works are feted and appreciated in other countries, it is only right that their kababayan should have the chance to view those movies since they are about them and their culture.
And so this year, FDCP launched Sineng Pambansa, which aims to revitalize the Philippine film industry by bringing these films in different cities all over the country.
“Our Filipino filmmakers are loved abroad and we know that when Filipinos see their own filmmakers and their brilliant work, they will surely be bowled over like those who are abroad,” says FDCP chair Briccio Santos.
“We intend to bring back the works of these Filipino filmmakers to Filipinos. We want to create a venue for the Filipino audience,” he says.
Santos believes that despite the odds, the Filipino film industry thrives to this day because of the indie filmmakers’ loyalty to their craft.
“Despite logistical challenges, despite marketplace pressure, despite the fact that there is often no financial return or little moral support, Filipino filmmakers continue to make films year in, year out, with a laudable, almost obsessive commitment to quality and fidelity to the many realities that confront our nation,” says Santos.
“It is these many realities that filmmakers portray in films to the many diverse audiences from Luzon to Mindanao and the response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic,” he said.
For its second leg, the FDCP has chosen Zamboanga as venue for the film festival.
“Zamboanga has inspired us not only with its strong cultural pride, but also with a sense of community,” says Santos, commending Mayor Celso Lobregat for supporting the festival.
“It is this sense of community that we wish to foster with each strong Sineng Pambansa. By revitalizing the interest of Filipino audiences in Filipino films step by step, city by city, screening by screening, Sineng Pambansa brings together the shared hopes, dreams and lives of all individual communities that soon enough, will represent the shared experiences of a nation,” he said.
“Such is the power of the cinema. And when you bring the power of cinema all across the nation, through the individual visions of our Filipino filmmakers, you create a binding force that unites our diverse cultures,” Santos added.
Lobregat for his part, said he’s honored and proud to host the Zamboanga film festival and doing his part to promote and stimulate local filmmaking.
“Sineng Pambansa: Zamboanga Film Festival 2011 will further reinvigorate Zamboanga as it marks its inauguration as a chartered city,” he said.
Leading the line up is the iconic 1937 movie Zamboanga, directed by Eduardo de Castro. It earned international rave reviews as the first Filipino movie to show innovative underwater scenes. The movie, which stars Rosa del Rosario and Fernando Poe Sr. also earned kudos for William Jansen who brilliantly shot the scenes considering the crudeness of cameras used at that time.
Zamboanga students were delighted to view the 74-year-old black and white movie, about a seafaring tribe whose livelihood is to search for pearls in the rich, pristine waters of Zamboanga and the love story between the tribe’s daughter and a warrior.
In 2004, through the efforts of film historian Nick de Ocampo, Zamboanga was rediscovered in the library of Congress in Washington DC. The existing film print came from Finland and was sent to the Library of Congress for archiving. Being one of the five existing “pre-war” Filipino films that survived to this day, Zamboanga is the oldest among them. It was produced in 1936.
Other films included in the Zamboanga Film Festival are Limbunan ( 2009, Teng Mangansakan), Concerto, A Davao War Story (2008, Paul Alexander Morales), Halaw (2010, Sheron Dayoc), Kano (2010, Monster Jimenez), Ang Mundo sa Panahon ng Bato ( 2010, Mes de Guzman), Sabungero (2010, Rozie Delgado, Miguel Kaimo), Di Natatapos ang Gabi (2010, Ato Bautista) and Emir (2010, Chito Roño). All films were shown at Mindpro Cinema in downtown Zamboanga.
Students as well as common Zamboanga folks had varied reactions while watching the featured movies. They were rowdy while viewing Hindi Natatapos ang Gabi, whistling and laughing whenever a steamy love scene or frontal nudities were shown.
Likewise, they cried at the ending of Halaw, which tackled the human trafficking operation of impoverished Filipinos seeking a better life in neighboring Malaysia, perhaps because it mirrors real conditions in the lives of their neighbors or even loved ones.
Halaw also struck a chord among Zamboangeños because the film was shot in their place and the director, Sheron Dayoc hails from Zamboanga.
The movie which stars Jon Arcilla, recently won a special award at the recent Berlin Film Festival.
Another favorite was the documentary Kano by Monster Jimenez, which revolves around American war hero Victor Pearson who relocates in a poor remote village in the Philippines and invites hundreds of women to live with him. In 2002, he was charged with 80 counts of rape.
Sabungero, directed by Miguel Kaimo and Rozie Delgado, follows the life of a middle-class family man and his foray into the game of sabong, from the way it affects his life to the slow, painful struggle for redemption.
Hindi Natatapos ang Gabi by Ato Bautista depicts the last few seconds in the life of a dying crooked cop and his attempts to search for redemption.
Another thought-provoking movie that had the audience in rapt attention is Ang Mundo sa Panahon ng Bato by Mes de Guzman. It tackles child labor in a rural setting where the struggle for daily survival conflicts with the need for education.
The musical Emir by Chito Roño tells of an overseas Filipino worker named Amelia, a nanny in the Middle East, who stayed loyal to her boss until the end even in the dire situation. When a conflict ensued, she stuck by her ward and fled to the desert but eventually gets separated from her, forced by circumstances to go back to the Philippines. The audience, mostly students, loved the musical numbers.
Another favorite, Concerto by Paul Alexander Morales, a true story, is about how, in the last part of WWII, a special piano concert is held in the forest outside Davao City and how it became an instrument for the survival of a family in the mountains of Davao.
Limbunan, a lovely movie by Teng Mangansakan II, tells about the ritual motions of the women in a family as they prepare for the wedding of a 16-year old bethrothed to a man she barely knows. As Maguindanaoan tradition dictates, she will be kept from public view in her private quarters — limbunan — where she will be prepared, readied and pampered for her wedding.
The audience was quiet as they saw a reflection of the realities in the Maguindanao of marrying women against their will and at a young age. Some of them probably knew relatives or friends who go through this emotionally-wrenching ordeal but can’t do anything.
At the Zamboanga film festival, the FDCP achieved its goals of localizing film festivals, providing a venue for filmmakers to showcase their films in the community and using films to strengthen cultural and social awareness.
“Likewise, with this endeavor, we are able to provide an opportunity to local governments to participate. We also want to explore and tap local talents and unify their unique cultural ethnicity into one common national identity,” Santos says.
The people of Zamboanga were left in awe, which is why Lobregat announced that they plan to make the Zamboanga film festival into an annual event. The next Sineng Pambansa festival will be held in Baguio City from March 24 to 26.