It’s a dream come true for multimedia artist Bon Labora, a native of Concepcion, Romblon, also widely known as Sibale.
The creation of Philippine Filmography Archive is the realization of Bon’s cherished dream which was conceived even when film archivist Teddy Co was still alive.
Teddy, a respected film scholar wanted to establish a digital repository of information about the history of Philippine cinema from the colonial filmmaking days in 1919 when the first Filipino movie, “Dalagang Bukid” was made by Jose Nepomuceno for Malayan Movies.
“Matagal naming balak ni Teddy na ilunsad ang film archive na ito. Kaibigang matalik ko si Teddy kaya ito ang aming matagal nang pangarap (Teddy and I had planned to launch this film archive. He was my closest friend so we have dreamed of this for the longest time),” said Bon at the Sine Pop, a micro movie house located at 14 St. Mary Street in Cubao, Quezon City.
Labora named the digital project as FilmPH where significant information about the local movie industry is to be found.
The independent program was launched in cooperation with the Quezon City International Film Festival which ended last week.
“Noong buhay pa si Teddy, inilapit namin ‘yan sa Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) nang si Liza Dino-Seguerra pa ang chair at gusto niya. Kaya nang magpa-presscon ang QC film festival, sinabihan ko si (When Teddy was still alive, we approached FDCP about it when she was still the head of the agency and she liked it. When the filmfest has its presscon I reminded) Liza and she was very accommodating,” Bon recalled.
At the moment, FilmPH is undergoing research and all possible contributions from the public about the project.
2025 will see more dynamic information sharing about the history of Philippine cinema through FilmPH.
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