Cebu in Spotlight at Festival of Regional Films

The opening film is the 1969 classic Cebuano film Badlis sa Kinabuhi starring Gloria Sevilla

 Cebuano films and filmmaking will be highlighted when Cinema Rehiyon is held for the seventh time in Cebu from August 6 to 9, 2015. A classic Cebuano film thought to be lost as well as appearances of well-known Cebuano actors will be important parts of the festival of regional films.

It is a well known fact that the Central Visayan province is the second largest film-producing region in the country after Metro Manila, especially during the 1950s and 1960s.

“Cebu has a unique situation. A local industry sprung from the province around 1932 to 1975. Also, there is a resurgence of a new breed of Cebuano filmmakers,” said Teddy Co, vice head of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) National Committee on Cinema (NCC), which organizes Cinema Rehiyon 7 (CR7).

CR7’s opening on August 6 at the SM City Cebu Cinemas in Cebu City will be graced by veteran actor Gloria Sevilla. Joining her are fellow Cebuano actors including Pilar Pilapil, Suzette Ranillo, Julian Daan and Undo Juizan, the first Cebuano FAMAS Best Child Actor awardee for the film Salingsing sa Kasakit.

Moreover, Sevilla will be given an award, and Badlis sa Kinabuhi, a film she produced and starred in, will open the festival. A classic Cebuano film, Badlis sa Kinabuhi was first shown in April 1969. Long thought to be “lost,” Badlis sa Kinabuhi, directed by Leroy Salvador and written by Junipher, also stars Mat Ranillo Jr., Felix de Catalina, Danilo Nuñez, Aurora Villa, Siux Cabase, Frankie Navaja Jr. and Remedios Atillio Alivio. It won best film at the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) Awards in 1969, and best actress (for Sevilla), best child actor (for Navaja) and best film in black and white at the 1969 Asian Film Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Badlis sa Kinabuhi follows the story of Celia (Sevilla), who is forced to work for his harsh stepfather Simon, when she, her husband Doming (Ranillo) and her young son Lito (Navaja) have fallen into hard times. Rumors begin to circulate that Celia and Simon is having an affair. Simon tries to rape Celia but Lito intervenes. Celia snaps when she sees Simon shoving away her son, and kills him with a bolo. Doming arrives. Seeing Celia naked, he chooses to believe the rumors and banishes Celia. Celia is about to be sentenced in court for the murder of Simon, when Lito, who is unable to speak because of trauma, finally speaks up and recounts the incident. Celia is acquitted and reunited with her husband.

Sevilla, who produced the film with Ranillo, will be given the Hara Humamay Award by the Cebuano Cinema Development Council during CR7. Widely considered as the Queen of Visayan Movies, she, together with Ranillo, has produced and acted together in a number of notable Cebuano films. In 1973, her film Gimingaw Ako (I Miss You) was the first movie from the Philippines to be shown at Moscow International Film Festival in Russia. She won the FAMAS Best Actress award the following year for the movie together with daughter Suzette Ranillo, who won Best Supporting Actress. She received her first FAMAS Award as Best Supporting Actress in the movie Madugong Paghihiganti (1962). FAMAS gave her a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.  Sevilla is still active in Philippine film and television. Most recently, she won New Wave Best Supporting Actress award at the 40th Metro Manila Film Festival in 2014 for the movie, M Mother’s Maiden Name.

On the other hand, Mat Ranillo Jr., known as the King of Visayan Movies, will be honored with the Rajah Humabon Award. Also a lawyer, Ranillo died in a plane crash in 1969 and was posthumously given an award at the 1969 FAMAS Awards.

Their movie, Badlis sa Kinabuhi joins select regional films, seventeen in all, in showings at the SM City Cebu Cinemas, Cine Orientes 1 and 2, and Film and Media Arts Academy (FMA) Mini Theatre. Films are clustered into thematic categories. One example is a category delving on the aftermaths of supertyphoon “Yolanda,” and it includes T.M. Malones’ Dapya Sang Paglaum, Charena Escala and Rowena Sanches’s documentary Nick and Chai and Thomas Fitzgerald’s Tigdong.

Films focusing on indigenous traditions and lives are also included in the line up. Among them are Nef Luczon’s documentary on the Pan-ay Bukidnon group titled Father Said, “Let’s Return Home”; Lester del Valle’s Walang Rape sa Bontok; Adjani Arumpac’s War is A Tender Thing; and Ivy Universe Baldosa’s Marciano. A notable work is Boyong Daguines’s Busol: The Last Headhunters, which is regarded to be an “indigenous film,” produced by and for the Cordilleran communities.

Other notable films to be shown are Remton Zuasola’s Soap Opera, which serves as the festival’s pre-opening film; Baby Ruth Villarama’s Little Azkals; Bagane Fiola’s Sonata Maria; John Paul Laxamana’s Magkakabaung; Lemuel Lorca’s Mauban: Ang Resiko; Charliebeb Gohetia’s Chasing the Waves; and Alec Figuracion’s Bitukang Manok, a product of an all-Cebuano crew from the boutique film school International Academy of Film and Television.

Kidlat Tahimik’s Balikbayan #1: Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III will close the festival. Said to be the prominent filmmaker’s tribute to pre-Hispanic Cebuano, the film follows Enrique of Malacca, a Visayan slave brought by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan considered to be possibly the first man to circumnavigate the world. Tahimik stars as Enrique with George Steinberg, Kawayan de Guia, Wigs Tysman, Katrin de Guia, Kabunyan de Guia and Danny Orquico. Balikbayan #1 won the Caligari Film Prize at the 65th Berlin International Forum of New Cinema last February. The work was also screened and well-received in other international festivals such as the Singaporean Biennale and the 39th Hong Kong International Film Festival in April.

Aside from the full-length feature films, there will also be screenings of contemporary Cebuano short films at the FMA Mini Theater, on August 7 and 8, from 1 to 6 P.M. There are about 50 titles to be screened including Rommel Ruiz’s “Nangisit nga Darag” (Black Sand) from Cagayan Valley; “Red Lights” by Cebu’s Christian Paulo Lat; and “The End of War” by Ozamis City-based Jo Bacus.

There will also be outreach screenings in select venues, outdoor screenings as well as a special viewing of National Artist Lamberto Avellana’s rarely seen works. Cinema Rehiyon 7 also features fora and discussions on subjects such as “Re-imagining Regional Cinema,” “The Regional as the Other in Cinema,” “Getting the World to See Youth Film” and “Film as Heritage.”

A flagship project of the NCC, Cinema Rehiyon features the works of Filipino filmmakers from all over the Philippines, especially outside of Metro Manila, raising awareness on the efforts on and progress of filmmaking in the different regions. It provides a platform for these films, most of which in local languages and showing culturally-rooted narratives, to be exhibited and appreciated by a wider audience, and for the filmmakers to interact with other filmmakers and stakeholders.

Cinema Rehiyon has been a major part of the Philippine Arts Festival, NCCA’s celebration of the National Arts Month every February. The first two years of Cinema Rehiyon was held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Pasay City. Since 2011, it was held in different parts of the country — Davao City in 2011; Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, in2012; Los Baños, Laguna, in 2013; and Cagayan de Oro City in 2014. This year, it adopts the theme “At the Crossroads of the Seventh Art.”

Kidlat Tahimik’s Balikbayan #1: Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III will be the closing film of Cinema Rehiyon 7

Directed by Leroy Salvador, Badlis sa Kinabuhi was first shown in April 1969 and had won several awards

Matt Ranillo Jr. also stars in the Cebuano classic Badlis sa Kinabuhi and will be posthumously feted at CR7

“The End of War” by Joe Bacus

Mis Da Ka by Carlo Catu

Ugkat, directed by Alyssa Mariel Suico

Handurawan, directed by Jaylou Dari

NCC vice head Teddy Co, NCCA chairman Felipe M. de Leon Jr. and CR7 festival director Bambi Beltran flanked by film directors participating in CR7

Tortured for Beauty

The Lee Denim DIY Rip and Repair at SM Mall of Asia

Jeans are some of the rare things that only get better when worn, tattered, distressed, or old. While many articles of clothing showing signs of age or wear and tear are sneered at, the good ol’ denim pants is an exception.

Closely associated with the working man, jeans are ubiquitous wear, and people regard those marks of wear and tear as badges of good labor, thus character. The denim pants is now worn by all classes of people, and they are sold complete with wear, tear, rips, patches and stains for urbanites who don’t have the chance to engage in arduous labor or the time to have these desired effects on their jeans. Intentional ripping and scratching are now part of the craftsmanship of jeans.

The next step is customization and personalization of wear and tear to show not only character, but the creative side of the owner as well. International jeans brand Lee recently held a do-it-yourself event where customers can customize the signs of wear and tear, as well the stains and repairs, and it proved to be tremendously fun.

The Lee Denim DIY Rip and Repair series kick-started on May 29 at the SM Mall of Asia, for its campaign “Denim Refreshment,” or breathing new life to the classic ripped and torn jeans by doing them yourself, or at least have someone do it for you under your instructions and predilections. The event also launched Lee’s 2015 line, the Jade Fusion, a temperature-reducing wear crafted with natural jade known for its heat-resistant property. The Jade Fusion improves breathability and manages moisture to keep the wearer cooler. Also introduced was the Dry Fast, a lightweight, soft and breathable performance cotton denim.

The Lee Denim DIY Rip and Repair lasted for three days and had three stations. One chose first his/her Lee Jeans at the Denim Bar. Men had a choice of the Zed fit and the Powell jeans, while women had Jeggings in different blue and heritage jeans wash. And off one went to the DIY stations. One station was the "Rip” where one chose parts for distressing, slashing and grinding, as well as the extent—if they should be light or heavy. The Repair station was for sewing and patchwork, while the Paint and Monogramming station was where one could add his/her signature—applying paint stains or splatters, having brand badge stamped with your name.  

After these, one came away with jeans tortured to acquire beauty and character and made precious, being infused with personal style. Lee Jeans promises to hold more denim customization sessions in the future.

The Rip station where one can distress the jeans

The Repair station

Add some splashes of paint

Attaching the personalized label

Sangyaw Festival 2015: Tacloban City Celebrates and Lights its Way to Recovery

A Parade of Lights float 

At the city center, Tacloban City throbbed with life. People were walking around even late at night. New restaurants and cafes scintillated at the dark corners, some interesting enough to catch attention. Small carinderias billowed with smoke from their grills. Young people gathered around new bars. New hotels had also opened, while the Santo Niño Church had been refurbished.

It has been almost two years since super typhoon Haiyan, locally called Yolanda, ravaged many parts of the Visayas in early November 2013, particularly the capital of the province of Leyte and the hub of Eastern Visayas.

International and local aid response was immediate and overwhelming, ameliorating the effects of widespread devastation, which included deaths pegged at around 6,000. Continued aid enabled communities to recover, particularly Tacloban City.

“When you go around the city, [you will see that] business has bounced back, especially in the downtown area. The people are moving on, so to speak. Malls have opened, have become better. Hotels are open. It’s booming, in a way. Lalong dumami—more restaurants, more hotels, more stores. New contractors are coming in, building the houses. Volunteer tourism brings people, also boosts the economy. They spend money here, rent houses here. The housings, may ginagawa pa. We will get there eventually. Every couple of weeks, may tinu-turnover na bahay. Unti-unti [we will get there],” revealed Tacloban City councilor Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez, actress-wife of Tacloban City mayor Alfred Romualdez.

Additionally, she estimated the recovery to be at 80 percent. And one very apparent proof of that recovery is the recently held Sangyaw Festival.

“Everyone is really excited. The symbol of having a big fiesta is not because we want to celebrate big and all that. For me, it’s really… ang tawag namin paglaum, hope. It brings hope to the people that yes, we’re back on our feet. Yes, this will help our tourism, help our economy,” she explained. “Holistic ang approach ‘to. ‘Di lang ‘yung psyche ng tao. ‘Di lang ‘yung psychologically it will help them feel na, yes, we’re back on our feet. Forget the past, let’s move forward. ‘Yung economy natin. Any cultural event boosts our economy. They encourage the tourists to come in, focus attention to our city, we hope. [When] we boost the economy, it helps the people. It’s a win-win situation for everybody. ‘Yung mga tao tuwang-tuwa. Nakalimutan nila ‘yung nagyari.”

Sangyaw Festival is the transformation of a more traditional and religious fiesta in honor of Santo Niño de Tacloban, the city’s patron saint. It was created by the former First Lady Imelda Marcos in 1976, taking on an old term in the Eastern Visayan language of Waray-Waray, sangyaw, which means “to announce” or “to herald” a news. The festival though was discontinued in 1986 and was revived in 2008 by Marcos’s nephew, Alfred Romualdez.

As Sangyaw Festival, it has become a motley event incorporating cultural and social activities, entertainment and fairs as well as traditional and religious events, lasting from a few weeks to almost a month, but always culminating on the day of the fiesta on June 30. Tacloban’s feast day for the Santo Niño, or the Infant Jesus, is different from the rest of the country, which celebrates it on the third Sunday of January. Tacloban’s feast day commemorates the return of the Santo Niño de Tacloban icon on June 27 after miraculously surviving a shipwreck during a voyage in 1889. Another story tells about the transfers of the image between the barangay of Buscada of Basey in Samar and the sitio of Cancabato, now Tacloban City. It is said that Cancabato would borrow Buscada’s Santo Niño icon, which was bigger, for its fiesta. As Cancabato community grew bigger, there were talks of retaining the image. When the Santo Niño went missing in Buscada and later found in Cancabato, it helped decide where it should be placed. Every June 27, the transfer of the Santo Niño image is reenacted, called Balyuan rite, on San Pedro Bay with a procession on the sea from Basey to Tacloban City.

The Sangyaw Festival coincides with the festival of the province of Leyte, the Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals, also in honor of the Santo Niño. The Pintados Festival was first celebrated on June 29, 1987. Then Leyte governor Remedios Petilla introduced another festival in 1996, the Leyte Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals. The Pintados and Kasadyaan festivals were later merged together. In recent years, rivalry developed between the Sangyaw and the Pintados-Kasadyaan, being associated with two of Leyte’s biggest rival political clans.

But according to Romualdez, the rivalry is just perception. “I want to look at it in a good light. We’re thankful that we have two festivals and two parades. The bigger, the better. Talagang boost sa economy. Wala naman talagang away.”

Indeed, during June, Tacloban City is riddled with many activities and events with the two festivals. Sangyaw Festival is developing to be a bigger event through the years except in 2014, after Haiyan struck.

“‘Yung fiesta last year, it was really, really low-key. We were still in the mourning stage. If you live in Tacloban, it’s still fresh in our minds, but of course, we want to leave that behind and move forward. There’s really nothing we can do. Babangon na lang tayo and move forward. It happened, and we learn to be resilient,” she recounted.

Resiliency was the theme of this year’s Sangyaw Festival, celebrating how Taclobans survived the tragedy and how they are recovering.

“We want to be more resilient. We bounce back,” Romualdez, who chairs the city’s Committee on Finance and Tourism, added.

Said to be a grand comeback of sorts, the Sangyaw Festival, with almost a month of celebration, was bigger and had more events and parties. There were concerts featuring Jaya on June 27; Pokwang, Chokoleit and Michael Pangilinan on June 28; and Rocksteddy on June 28.

Another Sangyaw highlight was a beauty pageant, which is de-rigueur in any Philippine festivities. About 5,000 attendees were said to be at the Tacloban Metropolitan Arena or Astrodome for the Miss Tacloban pageant. About 30 people died in the Astrodome, where many people also sought refuge, from Haiyan storm surges. But last June 27, the venue was filled with cheers as 18-year old student of the Asian Development Foundation College, Reena Vivienne C. Pineda, was crowned Miss Tacloban, who said that “Resilience is seeing Taclobanons with their smiles back on their faces again. It is about standing here again in the Astrodome celebrating life after Haiyan.”

“People are happy that we are going back to normal. It’s really for the people,” said Romualdez, who was thankful for the support of the sponsors, such as private business companies, for funding many aspects of the festival.

The centerpiece of the Sangyaw Festival was the Parade of Lights on June 29, attended by thousands of people. About 20 floats by different barangays, schools and private companies paraded down Tacloban’s main streets — Justice Romualdez, Rizal, Imelda and Real — all blinking with light-emitting diodes. They were accompanied by dancers and merrymakers, competing for people’s attention as well as for prizes.

The Parade of Lights was conceptualized by Cristina and her husband five years.

“We want to do something different,” she related. “The old fiesta was similar to any other fiesta [in the Philippines]. Gusto naman namin medyo kakaiba. You don’t want to be a copycat; you want to be unique. We want something that’s Tacloban’s very own. The Parade of Lights is, I think, the first in the Philippines, something different, something new. It was also inspired when we went to Disneyland and we saw that.”

“Symbolically, we want to be the light to the region,” she added. 

Scintillating floats during the Parade of Lights of the Sangyaw Festival

A Parade of Lights participant in luminous costume

The big perya near the Tacloban City Astodome 

The newly renovated Santo Niño Church of Tacloban City