Cordillera films in the spotlight

CAST AND CREW Cordillera actors, writers and technicians dominate the cast and crew of “The Wedding Dance,” another addition to the growing Igorot filmography in the Philippines. The first movie that will open this year’s Cinemalaya, it took only 13 days to film this independent movie based on a short story by postwar literary icon Amador Daguio. —photo courtesy of Julius Lumiqued

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — More than a decade ago, movie enthusiast Julius Lumiqued used to frequent the Baguio Cinematheque to watch every Philippine film classic that was being screened.

This small movie theater operated from 2011 to 2016 with an extensive collection gathered by the Film Development Council of the Philippines.

However, it did not have clean prints of the 1968 film “Igorota” featuring Charito Solis, nor Nora Aunor’s 1975 film “Banawe,” which were the only indirect, and now outdated, representations of the culture of the Igorots at the time, said former Baguio Cinematheque administrator, Joel Arthur Tibaldo.

READ: Igorot’s short dramatic film reaps festival awards

Today, Lumiqued has helped expand the Igorot cinematic library alongside other modern Cordillera filmmakers.

His screen adaptation of the Amador Daguio short story, “The Wedding Dance,” will be the first movie to open on Aug. 3 in this year’s Cinemalaya.

KEY FIGURE Baguio-based filmmaker and Baguio Creative Council member overseeing film Ferdie Balanag has nurtured Cordillera cinema through the annual Montañosa Film Festival. —Joel Arthur TibaldoI

Daguio, an Ilocano who grew up in Mountain Province, was a prolific author after World War II, and had penned the story of an indigenous Filipino marriage that was breaking apart because of infertility that is communally shunned.

The wedding dance was assembled for the heartbroken husband, Awiyao, who is marrying another woman after divorcing his barren and despondent wife, Lumnay, as the story goes.

It stars Baguio-born Mai Fanglayan, who stood out in 2018 when she portrayed the lead character in “Tanabata’s Wife,” a film adaptation of another postwar love story about a middle-aged Japanese man in Baguio and the teenage Bontoc woman he married.

The story has become a staple of high school and college literature classes and was written by Ibaloy writer Sinai Hamada, the part-Japanese grandson of Ibaloy clan leader Mateo Cariño.

Many young Cordillerans have rediscovered these timeless literary gems, which have shed some light on the lives, values, tragedies and wisdom of their elders.

BEHIND THE CAMERA Julius Lumiqued filmed “The Wedding Dance” on location in Kalinga province for authenticity and for inspiration.

Age of TikTok

And in the age of TikTok, young Cordillerans have turned to cinema to share those ageless tales as well as reveal their own stories to a bigger, more international audience.

To them, moviemaking could wipe away the mockery and misrepresentation that continues to stalk the Igorot, said film director Ferdie Balanag, creator of Baguio’s Montañosa Film Festival and the Baguio Creative Council member overseeing cinema.

Since the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century, Americans and Europeans have regarded the Igorot as a primitive version of the Filipino race—an impression that still lingers in modern times. Some textbooks still carry discriminatory references to Igorots that need to be corrected.

Starting out with film projects that were put together in family homes at the turn of this century, young Cordillerans churned out most of their small-budgeted productions during the quarantine at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Balanag said.

“The Wedding Dance”

As many as 86 movies have since been produced in the Cordillera for the independent film market, he said. Many of these projects explore modern life using genuine Cordillera customs and traditions as the foundations or backdrops of the stories.

Speaking at a July 11 news conference, Lumiqued said 90 percent of the crew of “Wedding Dance” were young Cordillerans, who contributed to the production’s Igorot “authenticity.”

He said Igorot cinema also developed mainstream careers for Cordillera talents like Fanglayan, and another contributor to the film, Richard Cawed, “who is in demand for his skills in underwater cinematography.”

Lumiqued said they started building a directory of Cordillera film talents for future projects that would be filmed in Baguio or elsewhere in the region.

Some of the region’s most prominent filmmakers are National Artist for Film Kidlat Tahimik with fellow National Artist BenCab. —photos courtesy of Julius Lumiqued and Joel Arthur TibaldoI

Hard pitch

Balanag said Igorot cinema also helped sustain “film tourism” in the regions, and its fledgling industry could provide homegrown talents when studios choose Baguio and the vast landscapes of Cordillera towns for location shoots.

The 1977 movie “Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising,” for example, was shot on location in Baguio as well as the local residence of its director, Mike de Leon, Tibaldo said. This classic starred Christopher de Leon and Hilda Koronel.

But pitching Cordillera-themed scripts to film and television studios has been a very difficult experience, Lumiqued admitted.

The film industry in the Cordillera struggles to secure funds alongside filmmakers from other regions outside Metro Manila, he pointed out.

“Wedding Dance” had to be shot in 13 days using a P6-million budget using grants provided by Cinemalaya and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and sponsored rides and equipment from agencies like the Department of Tourism and the Department of Public Works and Highways.

“Had this been a studio production, we could have [spent] P1 million per day,” Lumiqued said.

Actor Arvin Balangeo said the cast had been immensely grateful whenever they receive bottles of water during their punishing schedules because of budget pressures.

Major studios have not been averse to tackling Cordillera material.

One of ABS-CBN’s most popular television series, “Forevermore,” featured Benguet Ibaloy characters who live in the fictional sitio (sub-village) of “La Presa.” It was shot on location at Sitio Pungayan at the Mount Santo Tomas forest reservation.

Films that have piqued the interest of contemporary audiences recently have been period pieces like “Tanabata’s Wife.”

Part of the country’s literary treasures, the stories of Hamada and Daguio have not been reaching more students because the new curriculum reduced subjects in Philippine literature, said Marilyn Ngales, a Cordilleran who now serves as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Lyceum of the Philippines University.

Ngales, who joined the media briefing, said she was glad that young Cordillerans had revived these short stories and introduced them using new mediums like cinema.

“Daguio is one of the best short story writers of his time. He died in 1966. I reached out to Julius [Lumiqued] and said, ‘Wedding Dance’ is one story that should be told,” she said.

“Not many know us [Igorots] and we have to be the ones to write our stories. It must be us who will tell our stories,” Ngales said.