CALADO, Lester D.

BSBA Marketing Management

PELIKULA

( a summary to Philippine Motion Picture Industry)

Motion pictures or film takes a great part in the Philippine History and the life of the Filipino people for

over 100 years now. Date back to September of 1919, when the first Filipino film was released, Dalagang

Bukid by Jose Nepumuceno, a musical film play, the Filipino film industry began to rise. However, the

introduction of Film in the Philppines, can be traced back in 1897, during the revolt againts Spaniards,

when 2 Swiss businessmen sponsored the opening of Cinematographo in Manila, the first film house in

the Philippines.

After the first film house and Filipino Film was released, the "cine" industry in the
Philippines started to

take part in the Philippine history. A lot of indipendent films were released namely, Kambal Tuko (1952)

Kurdapya (1954), MN (1954), Bim Bam Bum (1955), Darna Kuno (1979), Jaguar (1979), Batch '81
(1981),

Sister Stella L. (1984), Kapit sa Patalim (1984), Init sa Magdamag (1984) etc. Majority of these films

features entertainment, societal issues romance, comedy, Philippine folklore and even the normal life of

the Filipino people.

Becuase Hollywood is the front runner in Filmmaking, some of the Filipino films, were inspired by

American films both in genre and trends. It is impossible in that time to compete with high calibred films

Hollywood can produce. The only advantage of Filipino filmmakers over Hollywood in the Philippine

market is that they portray a lot of our culture and traditions like the film of Ibong Adarna in 1941 and

they use our own language as their medium of communication in which we, Filipinos could probably

relate. The Filipino Film industry survived through the years because Philippine Film market wasn't
equipped to appreciate film in foreign languages.

Philippine Literature also takes part in film-making. Novels like Noli me Tangere by Jose Rizal and

Florante at Laura by Francisco Baltazar was reenacted through a film and was been loved by the Filipino

viewers. In 20 years of existence, Filipino Film produced both good films and actors and actresses that

served as a past time among Filipinos.

The Pacific war brought the downfall in the Philippine Film industry in late 1941 when the Japanese

arrived. Film equipments were harassedly used by the invaders for ther greedy propagandas. Some film-

makers were also captured to be used by the Japanese. In that moment, Philippines was just recovering

from the Pacific war but the Philippine Film industry already trying to produced films tackling their

invaders and collaborators.

When the film industry began to rise again, it is now running through a studio system and they have 3

big Studios namely, Sampaguita Pictures Inc. , Premiere Production and Pictures Inc. This system of film

allowed both film-makers, film-goers and the actors and actresses to have a year full of film lineups. The

birth of film recognitions and awards simulated consciousnes that the Film is a form of an art. Numerous

awards and recognition received by Filipino films in different recognition bodies in Asia made the

Philippines recognized as an important film-making body in Asian film-making Center.

Film-makers like Gerado de Leon, Lamberto V. Abellana and Gregorio Fernandez gave notice to the

world that the Filipino film had come to age.

In 1960's, Nationalist youth activists were calling for a structural change in the Philippine society
when

the studioes were phasing out, and a new generation of film producers were started to produce their

independent films. In conclussion, the Philippine Film industry experienced a lot of downfalls and peaks,

this is the reason why this industry has a great foundation and can survive any changes it may face.