Olongapo City wants to have its own film fest soon

With its forest, seaport, airport and bay, the Subic Bay Freeport Zone is the best place to build a film production studio similar to world renowned Universal Studios in California, according to Olongapo City Mayor James “Bong” Gordon Jr.

Gordon said it is for this reason that he invited American actor, director and producer John Garwood to see the place for himself.

Garwood first appeared in the 1967 action film “Hell’s Angels on Wheels,” starring Jack Nicholson. He acted in over 30 projects, the most recent of which was the TV series “Murder, She Wrote” in 1996. He produced four films, including the documentary “Crackdown” (1987) and the action flick “Violent Zone” (1988).

Gordon said Garwood first visited the city while filming “Crackdown.” “When he returns, I will ask him to take a second look at Olongapo,” Gordon said during the opening night of the “Cinemalaya sa Gapo” film festival held at the Convention Center here. “We have bunkers that the Americans left when they were driven off the base. We can convert them into small studios. There’s money in movies.”

Gordon said a booming tourism industry is important in a province like Olongapo “that has no product to sell.”

‘Only the beginning’

“We don’t have an underground river like Palawan, or The Chocolate Hills of Bohol, but we have our forest and Subic Bay,” he pointed out. “However, tourism will not prosper without culture and the arts. The tie-up we made with Cinemalaya is only the beginning. We hope to produce films ourselves. We want products that will excite tourists to come and pay us a visit.”

“Cinemalaya sa Gapo” screened 16 independent films from Nov. 26-30 to raise funds for the barangay health centers in the city, said Cinemalaya Foundation president and festival director Nes Jardin.

Jardin added that in July, the Olongapo City government, led by councilor and fiesta executive committee chair Bugsy de los Reyes, proposed that Cinemalaya be brought to Olongapo.

He said the local government wants to discover and support young filmmakers and eventually collaborate with the Cinemalaya Foundation to conduct training programs.

“We hope to screen Cinemalaya films yearly,” said councilor Edic Piano, vice chair of the fiesta committee. “The plan is to eventually make our own films and create what we would call a SineGapo film festival.”

However, Piano, a professor at the University of the Philippines Film Institute, said he’s aware of the amount of work required to make the project successful. “We’ll have to conduct workshops and seminars, meet with teachers and students here. I’ll have to arrange for them to attend classes on film appreciation and literacy.”

Dela Cruz said “Cinemalaya sa Gapo” was only one of many activities during the city’s week-long fiesta celebration. There was also the W.A.G.I. or “Wow Artistang Gapo Ito,” a talent search that showcased the talents of Olongapeños in singing and dancing.

“ANG BABAE SA SEPTIC TANK.” There are lessons to be retroactively learned.

“The vision is to provide a means for communities to express their art, history and culture in a platform that will showcase Olongapo pride,” said Dela Cruz. “We want to expose the youth to filmmaking in general, and to indie films in particular.”

Cinemalaya’s best film, “Ang Babae sa Septic Tank,” was screened shortly after a dinner hosted by Gordon at the Convention Center. Present were actress Evelyn Vargas (“Isda”), filmmaker Milo Tolentino (“Nono” and “Niño Bonito”), Cultural Center of the Philippines administration head Tess Rances and “Nono” associate producer Lorenzo “Toti” Reyes.

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