Margaha Beach ceased to be just sand, sea, wind and waves one late afternoon in February. A film festival honoring the place, which is also inspired by the artistic activism of Nunelucio Alvarado, is in its fourth year. This year, the event began on February 22 and culminated on the 25th with the awarding ceremonies. The end of the pandemic has brought back a face-to-face celebration right on the famed beach of Sagay City.
As early as four in the afternoon, huge kites were flying above us, pushed by the wind from the Asuncion Pass and the vast Visayan sea. A huge screen was placed in front of Kape Albarako, which stood beside another massive bamboo house serving as the residence of Alvarado, the social realist. While the public announcement had been signaling the beginning of the program, the organizers had to respect the light that was slowly and gracefully ebbing. It would be past five, with the dimness optimal enough to allow the images on the white screen to appear when the 2023 SineMargaha began.
The host, summoning the waves and the sea, opened the festival. Those words reminded me of the bravura opening of the 1st Margaha Festival, when a stage was floated on the sea. Buffeted by the strong current, the country’s flag waved mightily that night as the national anthem soared above the roar of the sea and the wind. It was a supremely dramatic opening—a tough act to follow.
Flash forward to post-pandemic: eight films qualified for the competition. Three would stand out among the rest: Ang Kining Ambahanon kag Binalaybay Ko para sa Imo (This Song and Poetry for You), Pandayunon (a combination of the words “pandayon,” meaning “to build or fix”; and “padayon,” which points “to continue”), and 1942.
1942 is significant in its subject matter—the cruelty of war that we should never have fought, presently lost among generations that tend to forget histories. Finely edited by Kent Raven Ardeña who also directed it, the film fuses archival footage with the memories of actors who could only imagine such an unimaginable past of their city. Its mise-en-scene of the raped girl supine on a table watched over by the flag of the Rising Sun (in contrast to the Hinomaru, which is a single red dot on a white field) eloquently stops the film. The dramatization that follows, however, weakens the film, which should be about gallant rememberings and not about histrionics. 1942 was given the Special Jury Prize.
Pandayunon has a powerful premise: cinema as advocacy. It tells the story of a grandfather who takes care of his autistic grandson. The conceit of the screenplay, which plays the continuous sound of the metal against fire and metal, and the struggle of a boy who hears everything and senses all the stimuli at the same time in equal measure, is the film’s strength. Even without articulating autism, the film is able to present the tender story of an old man isolated from the rest of the community with the child separated from the world of proper senses. Technically an all-woman enterprise with the screenplay written by Merry Grace Mission and directed by Jo-ane Pitogo, Pandayunon is a mother coping with her son’s condition, employing an instinct and skill that are maternal and artistic at the same time. It was awarded Best Sound for Joshua Genelaso and Best Cinematography for Jessie Soberano. RZ Trudebert Magpusao, who played the autistic boy, won the award for Best Supporting Actor. Pandayunon received the Margaha Excellence in Film, the second-highest prize in the festival.
Ang Kining Ambahanon kag Binalaybay Ko para sa Imo was declared the SineMargaha Best Short Film for 2023. Citing its simplicity, which also implies a respect for the character of a short film, the jury notes how the two characters in the film challenge the always idealized notion of family, creating a narrative that is realistic as it is magical. The journey of the grandfather and the young girl cutting across landscape and terrains is an achievement in film language, where time and space are conjured and not built. Its lead, Dante Macam, is a disarming presence, full of humor and wisdom. Brian Ferraro is the artist behind the musical score and the best original soundtrack, “Mingaw nga Oras,” a rhythm and melody I particularly connect with the small-town dances, reeking of nostalgia and bittersweetness, the Margaha sound.
Ambahanon won the Best Director for Kent John Desamparado and the Best Screenplay for Crispel Jhun Ducay, college and senior high school students, respectively.
In another film, Lubong (Burial), a young actor, Jose Alboro, would steal our hearts away. In the role of a boy who is taking care of his grandmother, Jose did all the household chores with the skills of an actor who knew his craft. His performance was the best the film could offer.
The jurors for Sine Margaha were: Chai Fonacier, international indie actor; Arden Rod Condez, multiawarded filmmaker; Kenneth Ian Rivera, literary artist; Rod Florentino, broadcaster; and Tito Genova Valiente, film educator and a member of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino.
Helen Cutillar, the city’s tourism and information chief, served as the festival director, assisted by Mark Raymund L. Garcia, a prize-winning director.
Welcome speeches from local leaders were reassuring—artists were not the only ones into culture and arts. The vice mayor of the city, Leo Rafael Cueva, welcomed us to the event, citing the value of culture in the lives of the people. The representative of the 2nd district, Cong. Alfredo D. Marañon III (fondly addressed as Thirdy), to which Sagay belongs, was there—expansive about the support his government is ready to give to undertakings like this. He even called some of the pioneering filmmakers in the city, like Jun Marl Alconga and Mark Garcia, to express his admiration of their works. The local governments wholly funded SineMargaha.