Restored Classics on free TV

MANILA, Philippines - “Time na mapanood na nga ng mga millennials ‘yung golden years ng showbiz,” comments Star For All Seasons Vilma Santos about Restored Classics that ABS-CBN Sunday’s Best will broadcast every first Sunday of the month after Gandang Gabi Vice. Batangas City Rep. Vilma is currently bonding with her family in Los Angeles.

This year’s Natatanging Gawad Urian awardee raves the brand of 100 plus digitally-restored and remastered Filipino film classics produced until 2012, “I am so lucky and honored to be given the chance to work with some of our best directors and writers na ibang klase talaga ang mga pelikula.”

Mike de Leon’s musical hand-in-glove take on religion with a tongue twister for title, Kakabakaba Ka Ba? (Does Your Heart Beat Faster?) with Christopher de Leon and Charo Santos was July’s feature.

ABS-CBN Film Restoration Project in tandem with Central Digital Lab continues conservation of well-loved film classics such as Celso Ad Castillo’s provocative take on incest, Tag-Ulan Sa Tag-araw, another Vilma starrer with Christopher.

Suitable for high-definition formats, its extensive catalogue erases ravages of age and ancient technology. Advertisers pay for screenings in place of ticket sales. Enjoy a throwback of your favorite stars in their prime.

“I think it’s good for the viewers, especially the young people. They’re the ones who have to be exposed to the cinematic treasures of the past,” states Roy Iglesias who co-wrote Eddie Romero’s historical drama on Filipino identity, Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon? as headlined by Christopher and Gloria Diaz.

“It provides opportunity for truly remarkable films to reach out to bigger mass of people,” points out Noy Lauzon of the University of the Philippines Film Institute where Peque Gallaga’s restored epic masterpiece that all is fair in war, Oro Plata Mata, premiered.

Sunday’s Best is the Kapamilya network’s two-hour window every Sunday for special shows such as beauty pageant finals, entertainment awards night, Hollywood full-length features dubbed in Taglish, specific interest subjects, and now, Restored Classics.

ABS-CBN has been holding special and/or special screenings of its classic collection in various platforms like high-end cinemas, A-List film festivals, by Sky Direct Free View, by pay-for-view, and/or sold as HD version DVD. Although they took the collective name of Cinema One Classics, the ABS-CBN cable channel, Restored Classics now broadcasts on regular basis on free TV for the first time.

Initiated in 2011, it’s payback time for the painstaking and thorough restoration process using German technology. ABS-CBN Film Archives officially launched the advocacy campaign Sagip Pelikula (Save Our Films) in August 2015, and partnered with Rockwell Cinemas by mounting REELive the Classics film exhibition the same month.

Three years into the pioneering effort, the prestigious International Association of Business Communicators honored ABS-CBN Film Archives with the Gold Quill Awards of Excellence, in 2014 held in Toronto, Canada.

Pioneer head Leo Katigbak who opted for early retirement in 2016 and is now consultant received the Ani ng Dangal from the National Commission for Culture and Arts in 2015 for the accomplishment.

But the ticklish issue stays. How about the popular movies? Are they not worth conserving but suitable enough for repeated broadcasts?