SineBuano, Cebu Independent Filmmaking Scene

[BeoR]

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Updated May 20, 2011

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SineBuano is both a partnership and membership organization set-up to promote independent filmmaking in Cebu and the central Visayan region purposely to enable the revival of the Cebuano/Visayan film industry.

Despite its demise in the mid 1950s, albeit with sporadic outbursts until mid 1970s, the Cebuano/Visayan films remain one of the most articulate regional film in the Philippines. Not only it brought home prestigious awards from international film competitions like the Asian Film Festival; it also offered Manila, the Philippines’ film capital, star-studded performers, such as Gloria Sevilla and Mat Ranillo, at a time when Manila was sorely lacking of that big screen attraction.

The death of the Cebuano/Visayan films was not because it failed to carve a following of its own because the fact remains that the entire Visayas and Visayan-speaking Mindanao are still awaiting for the next Cebuano/Visayan movie to come. What needs to be rebuilt, if Cebuano/Visayan films must continue to be sustainable the next time it hit the screens in southern Philippines, is the re-orientation of the business of filmmaking with which it was producing films in the past.

In the past, Cebuano and Visayan film producers were looking at film production as a way of re-asserting their presence in the overcrowded social spaces available. When the cost of production ballooned --- when cinema became the standard fare of entertainment in populous nations like India --- the local producers at that time thought it was no longer affordable to maintain their social status via film production. And, thus, the Cebuano/Visayan films started to fade away from the temporary limelight. Add to this the fact that Cebuano/Visayan films became a victim of its own star system; when the stars at that time relocated to the film capital of the Philippines, the regional Cebuano/Visayan film industry was left in a vaccum, too unable to sustain the star status with which it adorned itself at the beginning.

SineBuano believes it can help in the resuscitation of the Cebuano/Visayan film industry by way of re-crafting both the methods of production and the business plan that must go with it. If it chooses to embrace independent filmmaking in introducing this revival effort, it is only because it also believes that it must first fertilize its membership and the larger public with what its members can realistically do at this point in time. With the current accessibility of digital tools in filmmaking and matched with the interest of some in the art of filmmaking, SineBuano opts for now to entice the interest of the larger public to support Cebuano/Visayan filmmaking efforts. Then and only then can it proceed to venture into the business of Cebuano/Visayan film industry.

Independent filmmaking is a fertile ground to start this revival process. Not only it is not beholden to the entertainment standards of mainstream cinema; it is also more venturesome in its selection of stories to tell and in the manner with which it will tell those stories. It is, therefore, taken as a matter of choice that independent fimmaking offers a lot more space in exploring the artiness with which Cebuano/Visayans want to tell stories close to their hearts and in a manner unique to their region.


For inquiries you may get in touch with us here or better yet, please send us an email through: sinebuano@yahoo.com

[MrBiddle]

While Master Blongkoy said that SineBuano makes movies NOT out of the desire to win awards, but rather because the group has stories to tell... I can foresee that someday the group will win an OSCAR FOR BEST FOREIGN FILM



More power.

Just keep up the good work, SineBuano!

[Blongkoy]

MrBiddle,

If you are patient enough to take your time writing and imagining, this first OSCAR for a Filipino film may yet be the Cebuano/Visayan "Kulto."

But I will still go for the New York Film Critics Awards or Sundance.

[MrBiddle]

EDIT

[Blongkoy]

On a more serious thought, SineBuano has all the potential to excel anywhere. One reason for this is that it chose to be different. More than not, the one that is different has all the possibilities to get noticed, even just for curiousity's sake.

But, frankly, OSCAR has never appealed to me; it is just too complicated as a business. I would rather sit in the dark beside another moviegoer who I would like to hear commenting on the film I did and which he was watching.

[MrBiddle]

wa namampu'y ayo ang AMPAS.
they let Memento lose over Gosford Park.

[BeoR]

just a quick plug, jomark was featured on Sunstar Weekend last Saturday.

[MrBiddle]

dang, ang Sunday issue pa gyud amoang napalit...

Master BeOr,

might it be possible for you to scan it (like you did with satoy's), and post a link to the image here?

hehehehehehe.

[Blongkoy]

Beverly Morales --- Bembem to her friends --- is now tasked by SineBuano to direct a documentary on the following possible storylines:

1. A study on the business of "call boys;"

2. A study on a woman seeking the company of male commercial *** workers; and

3. A study on male tranvestites doing business as female commercial *** workers.

In pursuit of any one of these studies, Ms. Morales will be given full support by SineBuano by way of extending to her full equipment requirement and professional crewing plus postproduction staffing.

For sure, Cristina --- or mcolee --- will also have the same opportunity, if she now submits story ideas for her to possibly work on.

[Blongkoy]

SineBuano now has 2 units of Sony VX2100 DCR, 1 unit of Canon GL2 Digital, 1 unit Sony VX1000 DCR and 1 unit Panasonic VX100A 24P plus color-corrected Lowell and Tota lighting plus post-production bays in four locations.

If you come to think of this set-up, this is a lot better filmmaking environment than the giant Bigfoot. And this is not to talk about experience and track record which SineBuano can present yet unmatched anywhere outside Manila.

Soon this small pigtail in independent filmmaking, SineBuano, will rise to match the resources and appearance of Bigfoot. Bern Villamor, Benj Ordonez and Leon C. Villoria are spearheading this move.