by Maria Eleanor E. Valeros, #CebuBloggingCommunity
caption: Cinema Rehiyon 7 Film Festival executive director Bambi Beltran with Cebuano Film Development Council member Ron Heri Tan discuss with this blogger the preparation developments for the 7.7.7 event here or the seventh staging of a seventh art in Region Seven.
CEBU CITY, PHILIPPINES — Released last April 14 on the Facebook account of the Cebu City Public Information Office was an official statement that the establishment of a Cebuano Film Development Council was unanimously approved by the Cebu City Council.
Regional films staunch supporter Marlon Douglas Hoffer led a petition last year for the creation of a film development council. This was backed by Councilor James Anthony Cuenco, author of City Ordinance No. 2404.
According to Maria Victoria “Bambi” Beltran, executive director of Cinema Rehiyon 7 Executive Committee, that the approval inspires her team to work doubly hard for the seventh staging of Cinema Rehiyon from August 6-9, this year, here.
Cinema Rehiyon is one of flagship programs of the National Committee on Cinema, a sub-committee of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in celebration of Philippine Arts Festival.
Bearing the catchphrase: “Sa kinasang-an sa ikapito nga alampat (At the crossroads of the 7th art),” the event is the first of its kind, scope, and magnitude to be staged here.
Over a hundred film delegates, film programmers, aside from actors are expected to grace the filmfest.
Around 40 films in various lengths and genres from all over the Philippines will be part of a simultaneous exhibition in three different venues, Cine Oriente on Colon, SM City Cebu and Ayala Center Cebu. This is open to the public or free of charge. Passes will be made available on site.
The participants are winners from regional film festivals funded by the NCCA like the recent Lilas Binisaya here staged in November at Cine Oriente, Colon Street. There will also be screening of restored Cebuano film classics like Joe Macachor’s “Manok ni San Pedro” starring Provincial Board member Julian Daan as Esteban Escudero, Gene Labella’s “Alyana” which stars Chanda Romero, and “Badlis sa Kinabuhi,” a film by Leroy Salvador starring real-life couple Gloria Sevilla and Mat Ranillo Jr.
Another feature to look forward to is “Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux” directed by Kidlat Tahimik which delves into a theory that the first person to have circumnavigated the Earth is a Cebuano, in the person of Enrique Negro or Makiyong. He was the slave bought by scribe Antonio Pigafetta. He was believed to be captured earlier by pirates and sold to the slave market.
Beltran pointed out that “Kidlat Tahimik’s work is intended as a closing film. Planned as a revisionist historical drama about the first man who circumnavigated the globe, its hero was not to be Magellan, but rather his Visayan slave, Enrique. Directed by Kidlat Tahimik, the film gives tribute to a pre-Hispanic Cebuano who is possibly the first man who circumnavigated the world.”
A press conference in July is scheduled for a look into the rationale of the event, list of participants, and the workshops and forums designed to raise further public awareness, as well as to move public support for regional films.
Beltran said that right now they are focused on marketing the event to forge strong partnerships among sponsors. ###