To those who can’t view my PowerPoint.

Hello, everyone. Today I will be annexing my previous report on film preservation. If you remember, I
talked about the more common issues of film preservation, however not as a film body, but as part of a
film-literate audience. I talked about film preservation without any background research for that; I just
relied on my observations. I mentioned that we all form a barrier to film preservation, that location is
also a hindrance, as well as the weather and proper budget allocation. My findings, however, proved
that there are more pressing matters that occur even within the film bodies themselves.
According to the RECOMMENDATION FOR THE SAFEGUARDING AND PRESERVATION OF MOVING
IMAGES resolution by UNESCO, “moving images are an expression of the cultural identity of peoples,
and because of their educational, cultural, artistic, scientific and historical value, form an integral part of
a nation’s cultural heritage.” Furthermore “audiovisual media are a part of our cultural heritage, carrying
a huge amount of information that needs to be preserved for future use.” Governments and private
organizations set up archives that protect, not only entertainment value but also cultural value.
Especially in the Philippines, movies come out every year and there is this sudden urge now to take care
of them as they express Filipino values, opinions about the society and other intangible elements.
However issues are arising as people would rather prioritize survival over lifestyle when in fact these
two elements of human life can be as important as each other. In the hopes of having a national archive,
well, we don’t have one yet, but government officials with the help of some film archivists are working
to establish one. They are now seeing a need to promote a national understanding of our identity
through film.

For this research I was able to interview notable people from the film industry about their views on film
archiving and was also able to observe their verbal and non-verbal expressions towards topics such as a
national film archive, non-Philippine archives doing the work for us, etc.
I was able to interview the following kinds of people you would normally find in the film industry:
members from the film-literate audience; producers; and, of course, the archivists. I think some of you
are familiar with them. You will see their names at the end of this presentation.

Please note that when I mean by producers, I mean those who are producing films, not just the film
producers themselves.
These are my findings from the interviews. What I discussed in my previous presentation have been
reiterated by my interviewees along with some other pressing issues. My first finding is that producers
have no funds, or at least do not add in their budget an archiving budget. Second, as I mentioned
before, there is an obvious lack of public awareness and assistance, thereby low funding and such. In a
sense, because of the economic state of the Philippines, the question that I would often hear is: “We
need to eat. Why should we care about films?” Third is also what I mentioned before, which are climate
and location. Fourth is the “cancer” of films: the vinegar effect. I will discuss these in the next few slides.
First issue: Producers say they don’t have funds.

This is the poster of Manila, a film Piolo Pascual produced and starred in. This photo come from my
mom’s files when she went to Cannes last year. Beside him are directors Raya Martin and Adolf Alix Jr.
While this is not the year’s most brilliant movie, we still have to give the directors props for attempting
to revive two equally excellent movies: Jaguar and Manila by Night. Martin and Alix are what we call the
new breed of Filipino cinema and though it was not their best film to date, they are on their way to
being our generation’s Ishmael Bernal and Lino Brocka.

But if the producer does not archive his print and allow public access to a duplicated copy (in a digitized
format), how will we ever know and criticize Manila according to our experience of the city?
Aesthetically, Manila is not all that great but the idea of expressing a truth or a perspective of Manila
must be preserved as it is the kind of thinking that will affect a future of thinkers and movers of our
capital.

Producers, however, say they do not have funds. To be honest, that’s absolute crap. Say you’re a
producer and you have to budget the money you received through a grant. Production costs,
promotional costs quickly come into place. This budget is for the before and during theatrical exhibition.
But when your movie has lost its hype and people are now raving on another movie, what will you do?
There must be a cost for archiving. The prints coming from all over the Philippines (or internationally)
will return to the producer. The producer then must go to an archive to store the print. However many
producers, even today, do not have this foresight. This is why we have lost our black and white prints.
This is why we have lost a great amount of information for a identity re-establishment and awareness.
With these films lost, how can we reconnect past and present to make a better future?

Next is the lack of public awareness and assistance. The first finding is linked to this, as even producers
themselves are not aware of the importance of archiving a film after it has been exhibited. The
government is party to blame because it mismanages its funds, or the funds go to more personal
reasons. The bureaucracy is also a big problem, with mountains of paperwork and trips to Congress slow
down the establishment of an archive. Legal matters also prohibit or slow down the process of national
film archiving. Back then in the 90s, one Tony Salvador from TIKAR films saw the importance of archiving
films so he asked ABS CBN Archives to restore and keep his films. However those were not his prints,
and therefore misrepresented producers who made those films. In my interviews it was also stated by
Vicky Belarmino that the government tends to give, then take back. Senator Bong Revilla promised them
50M but upon seeing the budget breakdown made by Miss Belarmino and Nestor Jardin, Revilla just
gave them 15M. The Film Development Council of the Philippines is now mandated to help in the
establishment of a National Film Archive and is working on a 200M budget. However, because of the
change in administration, the funds FDCP gets is temporarily held back. Part of this mandate is to
provide clear terms with the producers and FDCP, but a universal agreement has yet to be made. In
short, there are no clear terms and conditions for archiving, which weakens the trust of the film
academy in the government.

Manila is not an ideal location for setting up a national film archive because the city is primarily a port
city, and it is very humid here. The hotter it is, the faster films will ‘die’. While setting up air conditioning
systems can work, if one does not have the patience to have air con 24/7, it’s impossible to have a
functioning archive.

This is why many archivists prefer to build an archive in Makiling, where they have the National Arts
Center. It’s not humid and the temperature is cool enough. Baguio is heavily populated and is very moist
(moisture is the number one enemy of film), so they ruled the plateau out. The question is why they
have not yet built one archive there… well it’s because of money and legal matters (there are some
hang-ups with the title of NAC).
To conclude my report, these summarize the biggest issues in film archiving and the search for a
national film archive. Based on interviews and further reading, these are the gathered
recommendations.

In general, Filipinos have a weak appreciation for heritage, which I personally consider is a murder of the
artistic Filipino. Why do we have a weak appreciation? Many say we want to forget what happened in
the past, focus on modernity. However as we learned throughout this course that heritage can co-exist
with modernity.

Film producers focus only on the theatrical exhibition, and their budget does not allow extra money for
archiving purposes. However they see the importance now, but they always ask a question: “What is in
it for me?” In the long run with re-mastered DVD releases and television exhibition, producers will earn
more. The case of Mother Lily Monteverde, who once kept her films underneath her sink in her house
(which is a mansion), the producer is now reacquiring her films. Independent film producers who are
products of CineMalaya are required to give CCP a print in order to archive their films. Producers must
now see that archiving is both a privilege and an obligation to preserve memory and to strengthen the
identity.

The government must now open its eyes to a possibility that films can be a miraculous way of getting
out of budget deficit if we build a national archive. I believe they must reflect on how they budget their
money. They must have a political will.
The youth must be aware of the importance of preservation in general. One of the NCCA Action Paths is
to reinforce arts and culture subjects in primary and secondary schools. While this is more of an
application of artistic techniques, classes should also stress that what they are doing is preserving the
memory of these techniques and that they should keep their works of art instead of simply throwing it
away after getting a grade. For film preservation it is slightly different, since children will have an
overload of the technicalities, but it is also important that they learn at least the cultural importance of
film preservation, focusing on the values and the heart of the Filipino illuminated in the films.

Finally, a suggestion is made that there should be an offsite location, which will be the exhibition center,
and have a national headquarters somewhere, which, as I have stated must be in Mt. Makiling for its
perfect humidity and temperature.