THE documentary film “Masterpiece” by Januar Yap and Alex Badayos won multiple awards during the Sinulog Film Festival 2020.

The documentary film is about the “Dibuho Kisame of Saints Peter and Paul Church” project in Bantayan, Cebu. The film gave a glimpse of the ceiling’s mural and how it affected two of its artists’ spiritual life.

It started when Fr. Joselito “Joy” Danao, who was then parish priest in Bantayan, Cebu, decided to seek the help of a group of visual artists to paint the ceiling of the Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Bantayan town.

Danao was thinking of “visual catechism,” where God’s word may be made easier to understand by the faithful, if they have some sort of visual aid. Parallel to the task of painting, the ceiling was the spiritual transformation of the two artists.

The film was produced by Januar Yap, a professor at the University of the Philippines Cebu College of Arts and Design and Opinion editor of SunStar Cebu, with Alex Badayos, chief photographer of SunStar Cebu.

Yap said the documentary film was inspired by a feature story written by Michelle So, SunStar director for network newsrooms and Superbalita Cebu editor-in-chief.

“We wanted to give the story another platform,” Yap said.

Their team had been joining the Sinulog Film Festival since 2014 as a way of “panaad” (devotion) to the Señor Sto. Niño.

Just like any other artist, Yap and his team always had the passion for filmmaking and, this time, their hard work paid off.

“The passion was always there as far as I can remember, only that the means were too expensive when we were younger. But now that the technology is readily available, it sort of rekindled the passion for it,” Yap said.

The documentary film won the Best Story, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Poster Design and Best Documentary awards, while Yap was named as Best Director.

Yap said he was elated to know that their documentary film won multiple awards and is hopeful that these awards will give the story its due attention, knowing how powerful the story of the film is.

Yap also advised aspiring filmmakers to study the medium. “There’s a multitude of excellent precursors out there to inspire you. History is fertile ground for your experiments,” Yap added.

Awarding ceremonies were held last Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020. (RSR)