HOW does one define winning?
For Dabawenyo film director Arnel “Barbi” Barbarona, who had recently bagged various awards along with his team for the film “Tu Pug Imatuy (The Right to Kill),” it is but a consolation prize that comes as a package with their desire to show art to as many people as possible.
For him, making a film is already a victory and everything that comes after that is a bonus.
Barbarona narrated that when they were making the Tu Pug Imatuy film, winning a film festival was never in their team's minds. All they wanted was to produce a good film that mirrors reality, a film he describe as something that touches the very essence of humanity, their emotions, sensibility, and one that can inspire movement.
Yet here was Barbarona after years of making film, winning a sweep of awards in the recent Sinag Maynila Independent Film Festival that would make headlines in various local newspapers and online news sites after he won the Best Director award.
Aside from that, he and his team also garnered the Best Picture, Best actress, Best screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Music awards for the Tu Pug Imatuy.
Did he ever dream of this before? “No” was Barbarona’s immediate answer, adding that as a young man, he had always thought of himself as a visual artist with his passion in painting.
Never did he think that his art would eventually evolve into filmmaking. It all started with his fondness in hearing good stories.
As a child, Barbarona recalled how his desire to tell stories was influenced by his grandfather who would share to him enchanting tales.
As he embarked in visual arts, he would use that art medium in conveying stories as well. But the shift to filmmaking started when he had decided to leave the country to become an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) in Taiwan when he was just 26 years old.
In Taiwan, he noticed how people there were so engrossed with photography and so he decided to engage in the same art. He learned the craft on his own but three years after that, he found himself coming back to the Philippines and starting a photography studio in Tagum City catering to wedding and events services.
It was in this business when he noticed how he enjoyed making stories in pre-nuptials video shoot.
“I realized that it is good to try storytelling through the medium,” Barbarona said in the vernacular.
He enrolled in a Guerilla Filmmaking workshop in 2008 and from there he was inspired to produce films every year. He eventually went into filmmaking full-time.
His first film pieces were short films done in collaboration with another filmmaker, Bryan Jimenez, where they featured urban legends. The fruits of this collaboration were the short films “Anino” and “Bomb Drop.”
In his earlier works, he was able to make films in the company of other award-winning film directors such as Sheron Dayoc for his film “Halaw,” Arnel Mardoquio for his award-winning films “Crossfire,” “Ang Paglalakbay ng mga Bituin sa Gabing Madilim,” “Riddles of my Homecoming,” and with Teng Mangansakan.
As a filmmaker, the film director wants to encourage others to develop interest in the art. He was one of those who pushed for the creation of the Nabunturan Film Exhibition in Nabunturan.
“For me, film is the highest art form. Now, I am pushing for the Mindanao story, the people story,” Barbarona said.
Barbarona shared that he wants Philippine cinema to be define through the stories of the region and not only limited to Tagalog films that is why he wants to create more people stories in the region and encourage other local filmmakers to do the same.
“We had always defined the Philippine cinema as limited to Tagalog films only and because of that the stories we have here in Mindanao were not heard and noticed,” he said in the vernacular.
“I advocate for stories in the regions to be produced into films so that the Philippine Cinema will not become exclusive but inclusive to the entire Philippines,” Barbarona added.
One thing he learned in his craft is collaboration. In making a film, all efforts are very important, he emphasized, explaining further that a good film is borne out of the collaborative works of the production managers and staff and the actors and actresses.
What keeps him going amid all the challenges he faced as a filmmaker? “As a filmmaker, I was always driven by my passion to advocate for my stories because a filmmaker who does not believe in his or her own stories will fail,” Barbarona shared.