Last year, during the week of Cinemalaya, I found myself waiting out screening times at the Greenbelt 3 Figaro, and over a cup of coffee and cram-writing I would see Eddie Romero.
He would sit outside, usually alone, with a cup of coffee, a cigarette, and the day’s paper to read. I had thought every time I saw him – about three times or so – that I should go get my photo taken with him. But I was never the type, and he seemed to be enjoying his solitude in the middle of an otherwise busy mall.
By Katrina Stuart Santiago
Published May 31, 2013 7:00pm
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He made us think about ourselves. Filmmaker and National Artist Eddie Romero, who passed away on Tuesday, May 28, will be best known for his epic “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon” (1976). Photo by Wig Tysmans.
There is a sense of this solitariness after all in the little that we know about Romero; he is no high profile National Artist, and was not wont to speak to media every chance he got. We hear his name and we do not have many moments in our head when he was part of public discourse.
But then there is Kulas, the character he created for “Ganito Kami Noon … Paano Kayo Ngayon?” (1976). A naïve peasant walking from Spanish to American colonization, from the countryside to the city, Kulas was ultimately searching for a community called Filipino. His was an independent streak tied to a tunnel vision that was about daring to look for answers.
This kind of independent streak is in Romero as well. In a rare biography of the National Artist by Agustin Sotto in the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino website, Romero is revealed to have known to go the way of independence. In 1953, decades before we would even call filmmaking outside of the big studios the “indie,” Romero would want to leave Sampaguita Pictures after they changed his name in his last film.
Leaving Sampaguita would mean Romero daring to do the films he wanted. There were the comedies (“Torpe” “Maria Went To Town”), but also the B-movie collaborations with Gerry de Leon that particularly catered to American audiences. In 1957, Romero had the opportunity to make films in the US, and would build a filmography of B-movies and horror movies including “Man on the Run,” “The Scavengers,” and “Terror is a Man.” Two of his last films in the US would become cult classics: “The Brides of Blood Island” and “Mad Doctor of Blood Island.”
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While Romero was making films elsewhere, the local film industry was giving birth to its best films. In the mid-1970s, he would decide to come home, excited by the work of Bernal and Brocka. Kulas would be his first major character, “Ganito Kami Noon … Paano Kayo Ngayon?” his comeback film of sorts. The rest would be history, were it not also about a selfless spirit.
Romero would serve as chairman of the film committee of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), as well as deputy director of the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP). He turned over the rights to “Ganito Kami Noon…” to the NCCA; and in 2011 his 13-episode telesine of “Noli Me Tangere” would again be screened by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
In 2009, Romero was one of eight National Artists to participate in the Necrological Services for the National Artist Awards, a protest action against Malacañang’s meddling in the selection process, including its own candidates in that year’s awardees, without due process.
On the NCCA website, Romero would speak of current filmmakers, and his answers reveal his brand of generosity. “I still watch movies and TV series until now. Some are good, some are bad, but I don’t have any trouble with young filmmakers. There are more good films now than before, because there is awareness of the medium.”
And as expected of this man’s independent streak, Romero tells the young filmmaker: “Be true to yourself. Be you.”
He might as well have been talking to every cultural worker.
On that week of Cinemalaya, Romero and I never went to see the same films, but there was a comfort in knowing that he was there too, waiting on new films to be shown, willing to be surprised by Pinoy film again. And again. We should all have the same commitment, Romero seems to say. We all should. — KBK, GMA News
National Artist Eddie Romero’s remains lie in state at Mt. Carmel Chapels on Broadway Street in Quezon City. NCCA is preparing a necrological service at the CCP for June 2 2013, Sunday.
Eddie Romero, an indie to the end | GMA News Online (gmanetwork.com)