New CFA Film and Faith Book on Filipino Films Launched

Spirituality and the Filipino Film, the third and newest book in the CFA Film and Faith Series, was launched recently at the seminar on Spirituality in Asian Film, held at the Communication Foundation for Asia Lagerwey Hall on 11-13 January 2010.

According to its editor, screen writer and director Clodualdo del Mundo Jr., the book examines the question of spirituality in Filipino films, which, quite surprisingly, has not been explored in critical essays, much less in book-length studies. In his Introduction to the book, Dr. del Mundo wrote that Spirituality and the Filipino Film is an attempt to fill that obvious gap and is envisioned to “start a critical practice that will look at our own cinema in terms of faith and spirituality…  We need to look at our own films more closely and find out what they have to show us about our faith and ourselves as spiritual beings.”

The book offers many new and fascinating insights to Filipino films, when seen from the perspective of faith and spirituality. Films discussed in this book include:  Biyaya ng Lupa, Maynila… Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag, Insiang, Bona, Manila by Night, Itim, Kakabakaba Ka Ba?, Sister Stella L., Mortal, Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos, The Fatima Buen Story, Magnifico, Santa Santita, La Visa Loca, and independent films like Kubrador, Tribu, 100, Cavite, Kaleldo, Tirador, and Lola.

There are eleven contributors to this original anthology, mostly film academics and reviewers, as well as filmmakers – all of them lovers of film.  The authors and their essays are:

Peter Malone, MSC (international film reviewer and author of many theology and film books) – “Asian Cinema and Spirituality”

Nicasio Cruz, SJ (Jesuit film critic and professor at the Ateneo de Manila University Department of Communication) – “What Is a Religious Film?”

Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr. (Professor Emeritus and former dean of De La Salle University Communication Department) – “Being Human: Spirituality in Three Filipino Films”

Shirley Lua (Literature professor at De La Salle University and member of the Philippine Center of International PEN) – “Portraits of the Believer, Acts of Faith , and the Ironic Imagination in Philippine Cinema”

Ronald Baytan (Literature professor at De La Salle University and editor of Ideya, the humanities journal) – “Looking for the Divine: The City of Sin and Bernal’s Manila by Night”

Anne Frances Sangil (professor of Literature and Art Appreciation at De La Salle University) – “Satire and Social Activism as Subversion in Mike de Leon’s Kakabakaba Ka Ba? and Sister Stella L.”

Noel Vera (Canada-based film reviewer and consultant/programmer of the CineManila International Film Festival ) – “Without God: Mario O’Hara and the Question of Faith”

Ed Delos Santos Cabagnot (culture and arts officer of the Cultural Center of the Philippines Film Division and a programmer of Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival) – “Two Mama Marys, One Santo Niño, plus All the Twelve Apostles: Adventures in Religious Iconography in Philippine Cinema”

Stephen Cuyos, MSC (Training and Production Specialist at the Communication Foundation for Asia) – “Imaging God: Magnifico as Christ-Figure”

Vincent Nebrida (writer-filmmaker and movie marketing executive based in New York, also executive producer of Filipino films) – “Cavite and Santa Santita: Mayhem and Miracles at Quiapo Church”

Roland B. Tolentino (film critic and dean of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication) – “Beyond Spirituality: Women, Nation, and Brocka’s Melodrama”

At CFA’s Film and Faith 4 seminar where the book was launched, six of the contributing authors, including Peter Malone, MSC, Nick Cruz, S.J., Ed Cabagnot, Ronald Baytan, Frances Sangil and Shirley Lua, gave lectures based on their book essays while Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr. presented a broad overview of Philippine Cinema (See related story).

Spirituality and the Filipino Film is available at the CFA Sales Office, telephone 7132981 to 86, email sales@cfamedia.org. The two previous titles in this book series are: Film and Faith (2008) and Film, Faith and the Church (2009), both written by Peter Malone, MSC.