DONNA as Eleuteria
CEBU CITY—Donna Isadora Gimeno, lead star of “Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria,” enrolled in medical school to please her parents, both of whom wanted her to become a doctor. However, her love for acting prevailed.
“I imagined being an actress as a kid after I saw a Nora Aunor film. She is my idol,” Donna told the Inquirer during the recent premiere of “Eleuteria” here.
While studying in Velez College, Donna took on preproduction work for Cebuano films. “I was either a makeup artist, part of the wardrobe crew, a musical composer or a production manager. I did everything to help my filmmaker friends.” (Eventually, not only did she play the title role in Remton Siega Suazola’s “Eleuteria,” she also served as the film’s associate producer.)
Donna’s parents allowed her to follow her heart after she won best production design at the 2009 Sinulog Short Film Festival for “Humamai” (also directed by Remton), which likewise won best story and second best picture.
But she started acting earlier, in 2007, in the indie mockumentary “Confessional” by Jerrold Tarog and Ruel Antipuesto—chosen as the best film in the First Features Section of the 10th Osian Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema in New Delhi.
Donna considers “Eleuteria” her big break: “I didn’t expect to get the lead role. Remton called for auditions and 300 people showed up.”
“Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria (Eleuteria’s Dream)” is about a poor island girl about to marry a foreigner to help her family.
Remton was all praise for his lead actress: “Donna is very good at improvising. I’ve seen her transformation with every role she takes. ‘Eleuteria’ is much more demanding than other projects we have worked on together, as we shot the whole movie in one continuous take. But she was aware of the technicalities, the difficulties in making this kind of film.”
Donna had previously acted in Remton’s short film, “To Siomai Love,” also shot in one long sequence. It won best short film and the Ishmael Bernal Award for Young Cinema at the 2009 Cinemanila International Film Festival.
Long process
Transforming Donna, a city girl, into a provinciana was a long process, Remton related. Her skin had to be darkened and the tattoos on her hands and arms covered up.
“I did not know what a provinciana was like. I just happened to have taken a holiday in the province prior to filming, and I tried to recall how the women I saw there behaved,” the actress said. “Remton and I pieced together Terya’s childhood, how she became what she is now at age 19, what her family is like.”
Donna admitted that she had one thing in common with Terya: “Our parents tried to shape our future. But Terya gave in to her parents’ wishes; I fought for my dream.”
“Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria” won two awards at the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival in Indonesia. It also received the special jury prize at the 12th Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea. On the local front, it snagged best picture honors at the 34th Gawad Urian and the 2011 Cinemanila International Film Festival (Southeast Asian category).
“We’re happy that it’s appreciated not only here, but abroad,” Remton said.
He said convincing producers to gamble on a nontraditional film was tough (he received a P1-million grant from Cinema One Originals). “People are not used to doing a film in one long take. We had to show them our previous works.”
Remton hopes to make yet another film the same way, with veteran actress Anita Linda. “She’s interested,” he said, “although … it will require much of her, physically.”
There are plans for Remton to direct a biopic of the 17th-century Visayan martyr Pedro Calungsod, who is scheduled for canonization on Oct. 21. “We’re still in the research stage,” he said. “We don’t know how it will pan out.”