Silent film festival in Manila features local bands

The 5th International Silent Film Festival Manila reels off Aug. 26 and runs until Aug. 28, highlighted by the unprecedented participation of the Philippines and Greece in what is considered the only silent film festival in Southeast Asia and organized by the cultural officers of Germany, Japan, Spain, and Italy based locally. The Philippines’ Brides of Sulu opens the festival with a 7 p.m. gala at the Shangri-La Plaza Cineplex Cinema 2, with an introductory annotation by film archivist and specialist Teddy Co of the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film.

Co said the “authorship of the whole film, Brides of Sulu, is in doubt." While being marketed and credited as an American production, Co said their research indicates “a strong possibility" of its Filipino origins, adding that it may have been “a marriage of two films." The movie has been in circulation in the US film market in the last 20 years, catering to collectors and aficionados of early American B-movies, genre cinema, and exploitation film fare. The Brides of Sulu (1934) is about a forbidden affair between a beautiful Muslim princess and her lover, a pagan pearl diver. The two defied religious and moral laws by eloping despite Princess Benita’s informal betrothal by her father to a neighboring noble chief. Directed by John Nelson and filmed on location, the 47-minute drama stars Adelina Moreno and Eduardo de Castro, and has been described by film archivists as “providing a rare glimpse into a lost culture." The Panday Pandikal Cultural Troupe, a group of young Tausug artists based in Jolo, will perform musical scores by solo artist Armor Rapista during the screening. “Through our (Tausug) music, we hope to bring back the Brides of Sulu to our home town," Rapista told a news conference. The musical score relies heavily on authentic Tausug songs and local instruments such as the gabbang (bamboo xylophone), agung ( bass gong), and gandang (skin drum), Rapista added. Sound design from bamboo sticks, metal scraps, and other objects add texture and excitement to the soundscape, Rapista said. German composer and pianist Stephan von Bothmer and the Far Eastern University Chorale accompany the German film Nosferatu (A Symphony of Horror) on Aug. 26, at 9 p.m. Luisa Zaide, program coordinator of the Goethe-Institut Philippinen, said the 1922 film by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau is based on the novel Dracula and is known as the “precursor of vampire films, chronicling the strange occurrences in real estate agent Hutter’s home after he decides to sell his residence to Orlok, a vampire who happens to be interested in his wife." Zaide said Nosferatu is the only film in the festival to be accompanied by a choral group, adding that Von Bothmer “will not lead the chorale but only guide it on how to read the film." The Japanese film Akeyuku Sora (The Dawning Sky), a 1929 work by Torajiro Saito, will be shown on Aug. 27 at 5 p.m. Shuji Takatori, director of the Japan Foundation-Manila Office, said the melodrama zooms in on the poignant journeys of an orphan and her mother as they are finally reunited after being separated from each other for a time. He said the group Bandang Malaya accompanies the 71-minute melodrama. Violinist TJ Dimacali, leader of Bandang Malaya, said his group has viewed the film “at least a dozen times and decided to break it into scenes." “Each performance is a unique work of art and one is constrained by the flow of the film despite the room for improvisation. It is different when you are performing in a gig," he added. L’Inferno, considered as Italy’s first-ever full-length feature film, follows at 7 p.m. Prof. Emanuela Adesini, cultural attaché of the Embassy of Italy, said L’Inferno is the oldest of all the films in this year’s festival. The 71-minute film by Guiseppe de Liguoro made in 1911 film is “a real piece of archeology with the idea of paying homage to Dante Alighieri," said Adesini. The Italian film is accompanied by musical performances by Filipino hard rock band Razorback. Showing on Aug. 28 at 5 p.m. with music by pianist Heliodoro Fiel of the HDC Trio is The Greek Miracle, a story of an Athenian family that wants to join the war. In the film, the husband volunteers and the wife soon follows him as a nurse at the frontlines. Polyxeni Stefanidou, Greek ambassador to the Philippines, said the five-minute film done in 1921 film is making its international premiere. He described it a “rare fiction film shot before World War II in Greece featuring real soldiers from and actual locations of the war." The Greek film is immediately followed by José Buchs’ 1926 Spanish hit Pilar Guerra, a film about a teacher in the Spanish town of Araceli who has romantic relations with Luciano, the son of the mayor who does not approve of the liaison. Hoping to separate the lovers, the mayor sends Luciano on a trip. The group HDC Trio accompanies the Spanish film. Antonio Garcia Roger, first secretary for culture of the Spanish Embassy in Manila, said they want to prove through Pilar Guerra that silent films are “alive, with good visual quality, and are works to be enjoyed as a legacy." Jose Maria Fons, deputy for cultural affairs of the Instituto Cervantes in Manila, said restoring silent films ravaged by time and elements “entails a lot of work which become exciting work because a new cultural product emerges which is worth watching." - YA, GMA News The 5th International Silent Film Festival Manila is co-presented by the Goethe-Institut Philipinen, Japan Foundation-Manila Office, Instituto Cervantes, the Embassy of Italy, the Philippine-Italian Association, the Embassy of Greece, National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Philippines, and the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film. Tickets for the screenings will be distributed by the respective embassies and cultural agencies. Contact 527-2209 (Mylene Narciso-Urriza, NCCA) for Brides of Sulu; 811-0978 (Goethe Institut) for Nosferatu; 811-6155 to 58 (The Japan Foundation-Manila Office) for Akeyuku Sora; 892-4531 loc 143 (Embassy of Italy) for L’Inferno; gremb.man@gmail.com (Embassy of Greece) for The Greek Miracle; and 526-1482 (Instituto Cervantes) for Pilar Guerra. For other inquiries, contact 633-7851 loc.113 or log on to www.shangrila-plaza.com