Baguio City hosted the first ever film making seminar in CAR last Dec. 17, 2018. The seminar was actually combined with the Cordillera Couture Fashion Show, and another lecture on photography. The event was held at the Supreme Hotel.
The seminar attracted at least 112 participants, mostly students of universities/colleges in the Baguio-La Trinidad area. St. Louis University-18, University of Baguio-15, University of the Cordilleras-12, University of the Philippines-8, Benguet State University-5, Cordillera Community Development College -5. The rest were from high schools, technical schools and private organizations in Baguio, Benguet and Abra.
The event itself was the first major activity organized by the Cordillera Center for Sustainable Solutions, Inc (CCSSI) headed by Dr. Jerome Polonio, a Cordilleran who worked for the United Nations in Papua New Guinea.
Dexter Macaraeg, an international award-winning filmmaker, a proud son of the Cordillera, was the resource person for the filmmaking. He is actually an actor, director, and a writer (scriptwriter, screenplay writer). A complete package, so to speak. He started to make films more than 30 years ago, in 1987. He believes that a film is a record of personal history. Together with Liza Dinio, Dexter, as he is fondly called by his friends, started dreaming of having a Cordillera film festival 3 years ago.
Dexter’s odessy in the film industry started as a child performer in Bangued, Abra at the Divine Word College. From there, he went on to chase his dream by having trainings, workshops and related activities. Along the way, he had the good fortune of having colleagues in workshops who had already carved names for themselves in the stage or film industry. He singled out Lea Salonga, his colleague in workshops of Repertory Philippines, as one of his inspirations as a performer.
It is important according to him, to associate yourself with the best, if you want to be the best. This is a compelling reason why he had as his mentors some of the best and accomplished names in the entertainment arena. They include: internationally-acclaimed director Brillante Mendoza (won the best director award in the 2009 Cannes Film Festival); most decorated Filipino scriptwriter, Ricky Lee; just awarded as a national artist for film making, and a Baguio boy, Kidlat Tahimik; and Dr. Nick Deocampo, a renowned UP professor in films. He had met almost all the international award-winning directors in the Philippines
His mentors and teachers trained him to be professional, on time for his appointments, prepared and ready for anything, and as a team-oriented individual when required. He averred that talent alone is not enough to achieve a goal.
Macaraeg’s first documentary film, “Am-Amma”, which was about loom weaving in Abra, won first prize in the Int’l Film Festival in Manhattan, New York this year. It also won first prize at the Urduja Film Festival in Urdaneta, Pangasinan. His second docu film, “Tata Pilo,” which is about kattukong hat making also in Abra, was first “publicly” screened here in Baguio during the seminar. It is entered in the Berlin film festival this year 2019
Dexter Macareg believes that filmmaking is a true privilege to experience and share the wide scope of humanity through story telling. He mentioned some films shot in CAR: Banaue, Mumbaki, Perfumed Garden, Strawberry Girl, Walang Rape sa Bontoc, Ang Babae sa Likod ng Mambabatok, and Tanabata’s Wife. Include here his documentaries: Am-Amma and Tata Pilo.
His advice to participants: “Make consistent daily progress on your projects and your quest to become a better artist or film maker, even if that progress seems small and insignificant. Small bits of consistent progress add up quickly. It means that you can’t let the many obstacles you face as a filmmaker stop you from making films”.
“Realize that obstacles and roadblocks are inherent part of filmmaking, and that everybody, including the artists you look up to most had to deal with exactly the same nonsense before they make it big. It means that you have to learn to love the process of filmmaking, divorcing yourself from the results, at least to begin with. When you love the process, no time spent in making films is wasted time.”
The filmmaker was profuse in imparting so much tips to the participants, especially those that he experienced himself.
“Everyone’s story deserves to be told – in film”, he said. He challenged the participants to take advantage of Pres. Duterte’s Proclamation # 622 – Declaring Sept 12, 2019-Sept 11, 2020 as Centennial Year of Philippine Cinema. His challenge is in accord with the plan of CCSSI to have a follow-up seminar this March, then hopefully followed by a CAR film festival in September this year.
The seminar also included a lecture by another well-known Filipino, Luis Liwanag, who is an international award-winning photographer, and presently an independent photo-journalist. He started his schooling in U.P. Baguio but graduated at Ateneo. He had worked with both ABS-CBN and GMA networks. He is all over the Philippines giving seminars and workshops to aspiring photographers. His works had been published in various magazines, papers not only locally but also abroad.
Liwanag talked about ‘Shooting Stories with Impact’. He spiked his presentation with actual shoots of the current happenings in the country which reaped awards in the international arena. He emphasized the importance of emotions in photography. “Seize the moment. The eyes, the mind and the heart should go together” he said.
The seminar had 2 well-credentialed resource persons. CCSSI did a good job finding such talents.
There was a second aspect of the event: Cordillera Couture Fashion Show which was presented by Jerome Bagni and Andrew Visaya Jr., and featuring local designers using local fabric. The show was quite inspiring. The designs, modeled mostly by students, including 2-3 current Team Lakay members, attempted to combine the traditional and modern designs to appeal to millennials and young professionals. Some were very appealing but others need to be reconsidered. The young designer, Glory Payangdo, is very promising although she considers herself still a student of fashion designing. Endeavors like this should be strongly encouraged by local government units or concerned public offices and private groups.
The filmmaking seminar is part of a 2-year project with the end-goal of promoting a Cordillera Film Festival, according to Dr. Polonio. The sponsor, CCSSI, is a social enterprise, private voluntary organization dedicated to holistic community-driven developments and people empowerment, engaged in capacity building; socio-economic, community organizing and development, business and management consulting, project management and development, venture equity partners, public-private partnership; and service delivery partnership.**Danilo Padua
