Quest for a national film archive continues
By Clodualdo del Mundo Jr.
MANILA, Philippines—Armando "Mandy" Diaz Jr. described himself as a
fan of Nora Aunor, the Superstar of Philippine Cinema in the '60s and
the '70s. He was no ordinary fan—in his words, he loved Nora
Aunor "super-to-the-max."
I didn't know Diaz personally. I just learned about him through the
Internet when he passed away not too long ago. The announcement from
his fellow Noranians attached an essay that Mandy wrote about himself
as a superfan, entitled "Himala," which describes his devotion to the
superstar. In his home, a photo of his idol occupies a special place
on the family altar. His house, located on what he refers to as Nora
Aunor Avenue, is marked by Aunor's huge photos on the door and window.
This devotion, which started when Diaz was in the first grade and
continued till his death at age 48, resulted in 47 volumes of book-
bound clippings from 1967 to 2008. There are 10 photo albums—
including stills from the actress' movies.
Bit player
Moreover, there are 172 original layouts of Nora's films, from "All
Over the World" (1967), when Nora was just a bit player, to her 2004
film, "Naglalayag." He also mentions his collection of records by La
Aunor that he would listen to every morning to set each day right!
Indeed, there may not be that kind of collection anywhere else.
What does Diaz's story say about archiving in the Philippines?
Collecting, which is a major part of archiving, is done by people
like Mandy. Collectors are motivated by personal tastes and choices.
In this country, if you need stills from motion pictures, you go to
individual producers and pray that they have stored those stills and
would be willing to share them. Or, you go to people like Cesar
Hernando, who keeps his collection in Kodak photo-paper boxes.
If you need movie posters, you visit production companies and pray
that they have a collection of their posters—or, you can go to Vic
Delotavo, a movie-poster designer who keeps a good collection of his
own works. If you need movie ads of prewar or postwar movies up to
the '50s, you might want to check out the collection of Danny Dolor,
who's a patron of the arts.
Now that DVDs are easier to acquire, I wouldn't be surprised to see
private collections of films. Check out filmmakers and actors for
copies of their own works. And don't discount collections of 35mm
films, however limited they may be. If you're looking for the
original Filipino version of Manuel Conde's "Genghis Khan," there's a
Filipino living in California who has a print of Conde's classic—in
35mm!
Establishment
The point is, there's no central place where extra-filmic artifacts,
much less the movies themselves, are archived. When the Sofia
(Society of Filipino Archivists for Film) was organized in 1994, its
mission was to see the establishment of a national audio-visual
archive. Today, that same mission continues.
In a recent inventory of the collections of several archives and
storage facilities, Sofia found that many of them are in various
levels of disrepair. There's only one institution in the country that
operates as an honest-to-goodness storage facility: The state-of-the-
art ABS-CBN Film Archive.
Actually, things would be simpler if we changed the name of the ABS-
CBN archive to the to National Film Archive of the Philippines, which
would cut short Sofia's goal. However, that is well nigh impossible,
since the Lopezes and the Arroyo administration are embroiled in the
electric power controversy.
But, honestly, the ABS-CBN Film Archive is our de facto national film
archive: It now houses the LVN collection (LVN was one of the three
major movie studios in the '50s), the FPJ collection, and virtually
all the films produced by Regal, RVQ and other companies. Moreover,
it operates as a real archive should—because researchers are allowed
access to its collection!
More and more of our films are being archived outside the country:
Lino Brocka's "Insiang" and "Bona" are in the Cinémathèque Française,
as well as Gerry de Leon's "48 Oras" and Conde's "Genghis Khan." The
British Film Institute has copies of Lino Brocka's "Maynila…Sa Mga
Kuko ng Liwanag," "Bayan Ko" and "Bona," and Eddie Romero's "Ganito
Kami Noon…Paano Kayo Ngayon?"
A Mike de Leon collection is archived in Singapore. Lav Diaz's movies
can be found in Vienna. Tikoy Aguiluz's "Boatman" is in Brussels.
Those produced by Armida Siguion-Reyna can be found in Los Angeles.
Ishmael Bernal's "Nunal sa Tubig" is in Berlin. New York's Museum of
Modern Art has a copy of "Bona." Fukuoka's city library likewise has
a collection of Filipino features. If this trend continues, we will
certainly lose direct access to our own films!
In the meantime, the work for the establishment of a National Audio-
Visual Archive resumes. The future doesn't look bleak, although it
doesn't look that bright, either. People are pushing for the
collaboration of the Film Development Council and the Cultural Center
of the Philippines.
Resources
Since the FDCP is mandated to act on the archiving needs of the
industry, the idea is to speed up its work by collaborating with
CCP's archive—to make use of resources that are already available!
The dream of having a National Audio-Visual Archive will be realized—
simply because there are Pinoys who worship at the altar of Cinema.
To use the words of Aunor's superfan, we are devoted to this
goal "super-to-the-max"!
