FOR someone who lived long enough in a mountain environment, the opportunity to travel in one of the country’s islands is not a choice but a must, especially that the place to be visited is known for being a relatively friendly city and branded as "The City of Smiles."
Just like Baguio’s Panagbenga Flower Festival, Bacolod is also known for its Masskara Festival held during the third week of October each year.
It is amazing to see a progressive island where you see a vast agricultural land co-existing with metropolitan life. On our way to a historical landmark, I observed a BMW and Mahindra car showrooms next to a sugarcane field. I also learned that Bacolod is a food city known for its Inasal chicken and Piaya, a sweet oven toasted pastry. Throughout my three days stay, I preferred fish as my main dish as this does not happen in Baguio which is situated over five thousand feet above sea level.
Bacolod artists like Boy Garovillo of the Pinikpikan Band were part of Baguio’s early art adventures that in a way led to the formation of the Baguio Arts Guild in the mid-80s. As a first time visitor to this Negros island city, I inched my way and stopped at every art spaces and dens that I encountered to capture the art scenes of the place including the local’s way of life.
As member of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts-Sub-Committee for the Arts on Cinema, I joined the NCCA-SCA team attended for the Sine Negrense Film Festival we took part in lectures and forums. We also attended the screening of Peque Gallaga’s film “Sonata” at Bacolod’s SM Cinema 4 where Teddy Co, xhair of NCCA-Cinema, delivered a message and encouraged local filmmakers to submit works to local and international film festivals, including the Cinema Rehiyon 10 to be held at the National Capital Region. Before the screening, Director Gallaga gave a pep talk about what he refers to as the “Transformative power of art which creates an open window to the world.”
In his lecture at the House of Frida, Patrick Campos of our team mentioned that the reckoning of RP’s Centennial year was based on September 25, 1919 when film director Jose Nepomuceno showed his film “Dalagang Bukid” in Manila.
Accordingly, there were debates that the year 1912 should be the basis of reckoning for the birth of Philippine cinema as it was the time when short movies about Dr. Jose Rizal were first screened to a group of privileged audience.
Tito Vallente of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (MPP) discussed the rise of Bikol Cinema and other films from the regions to students as part of their preparatory activity for Sine Agustino 2018. Vallente pointed out that regional films can distort or isolate culture and create margins and peripheries.
Baby Ruth Villarama of the Sunday Beauty Queen fame dwelt on her topic “Idea to independence.”
Villarama elaborated on cinema’s approach to truth in silence, empathy against apathy, how to package truth and getting information for films. Encouraging students to attend workshops, she also presented the skeleton of her film from concept to reaching her target audience which are embassies, consular offices and returning OFWs.
“You have to understand the culture and preference of your target audiences,” the director implied adding that it takes a village to produce a film.
During the awards night of Sine Negrense, members of our group did the honors of conferring a specially made trophy to the awardees who were mostly students. Peque Gallaga concluded that indeed, Cinema is alive and kicking in Bacolod. We were in a room full of storytellers that connected us to the rich but colorful culture of the Negrosanons. I also had cinema related talks with film director Ed Palmos who happened to be my roommate in between our scheduled activities. We observed that many old-school cinema approaches and disciplines are no longer observed by the new breed of filmmakers and perhaps this is indicative of the present genre of cinema. As for me, I still want to explore other possibilities of this dynamic form of art and see how my creativity fit into it as a producer-director.
On our return flight, the stewardess gave a quiz and asked the passengers what is the millennial meaning of the acronym SLR. I was about to shout what I had in mind when somebody raised a hand and said something foreign to me. Trying to recall what the answer was, I posted the question on my social media account and two friends replied with “Sorry late reply.”
Recalling my five years as coordinator of the country’s erstwhile first Cinematheque where we hosted dozens of local and international film fests until it was finally closed due to high cost of rent, I am hopeful that the indie film community will continue to expand and produce more movies that reflects local culture and art.