Advocates for film preservationOrganization Profile

3Message from the President

4Mission & Vision

5Board Members

6About SOFIA

7History

10Advocacy

13Support SOFIA

14Member Archives

Table of Contents

CREDITSConcept and Project Direction: Ramon NoconLay-out and Graphics: Marz AglipayPortraitures and Operational Photography: Patrick AlcantaraAdditional Photographs: SOFIA Archives, James de la Rosa, Rodel Valiente and Simon Santos (Video 48)On cover: Sister Stella L., Sarung Banggi, & Kampanang Ginto courtesy of Simon Santos (Video 48)

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Dear Friends,

As the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film – SOFIA – enters its 20th year as an organization, we remain steadfast and renew with fervor our commitment to the cause that moves us forward: that is to ad-vocate for the establishment of a national repository for audiovisual materials.

With the current administration of the Film Development Coun-cil of the Philippines (FDCP), we are seeing the beginnings of the National Film Archives of the Philippines (NFAP). This is a move that we not only welcome but wholeheartedly support, for it is at long last a realization of our dream. But we are cognizant of course that this initiative is still in its infancy (although we acknowledge and congratulate them for the tremendous work that they have done so far, what with the 11,300 discreet element now in their possession — videotapes, film, audio and digital files) and that challenges still lay ahead. Thus, we at SOFIA is here to render whatever assistance may be needed – to lend a hand – in ensuring the institutionalization of the NFAP. The opportunity is upon us; time is now.

In our general assembly held in February 2013, our President Emeri-tus, Dr. Clodualdo del Mundo Jr., posed not only a crucial question but an important challenge to our members: “How do we make SO-FIA relevant again?” It is a timely clarion call, and in response we are now drawing-up projects – such as conducting film archiving work-shops and the revival of our popular film screening series – with the end goal of drawing awareness not only to our organization, but more significantly to the importance of saving whatever remains of our cinematic heritage including “lost” titles still to be found.

With the limited financial resources within our reach, however, jump-starting these initiatives may prove difficult. We are reaching out therefore to our friends who share in our advocacy and would like to help us in pursuing these efforts. Through this our updated organizational profile, we hope that you would get to know more about SOFIA: our history, our past programs, and our future direc-tions.

On behalf of all our members, our sincerest thanks and let us con-tinue to work as one in the preservation of our cinematic heritage.

Sincerely Yours,

Mary del Pilar

President

Message from thePresident

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Mission

Vision

Filipinos learning about themselves and the nation through their audio visual heritage.

To professionalize AV archiving

To preserve films and other AV artifacts

To create and support documentation and

research projects

To involve the audiovisual industry

with the task of archiving

To promote AV archives and archiving

To educate archivists and the public on the art of cinema and other forms of audio

visual media.

1 To advocate the establishment of a

National Audio Visual Archive

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BOARDMEMBERS

Mary del Pilar

ABS-CBN

VICE

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PRES

IDEN

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TREA

SURE

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SECR

ETAR

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Ricky Orellana

Mowelfund

Ramon Nocon

NCCA

Vicky Belarmino

CCP

Eros Arbilo, Ceasar Hernando, Teddy Co and Ronald Rios

TRUSTEES

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The Society of Filipino Archivists for Film ( Samahan ng mga Filipinong Arkivista para sa Pelikula, Inc. ) or SOFIA is an SEC registered non-stock, non-profit, non-

governmental organization that is comprised of individuals from varying backgrounds – from trained archivists to film enthusiasts – that are brought together by a singular cause and purpose: to preserve our country’s cinematic heritage and to support the establishment of a national film archive. SOFIA itself does not maintain its own film archive but has, among its membership ros-ter, different archive entities such as those under the auspices of ABS-CBN, Cultural Center of the Philippines and Mowelfund. SO-FIA is governed by a nine-member Board of Trustees who serve on a purely volunteer basis. A general assembly is held annually to nominate and elect the members of the board and officers for the ensuing year. Board meetings are held at least once every month where different matters pertaining to the organization is discussed at length. SOFIA is an active participant in the SEA-PAVAA (Southeast Asia and Pacific Audio-Visual Archives As-sociation), an association of audiovisual archive institution from the Southeast Asia-Pacific region, which it helped to organize.

About SOFIA

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IT WAS IN 1993 WHEN THE LATE AGUSTIN “Hammy” Sotto, respected film critic and researcher, led a group of professionals –

archivists, librarians and scholars – who took on the challenge of organizing what was then called the Society of Film Archivists. Sans any funds, much less its own office and archiving equip-ment, this intrepid lot persevered; fueled simply by their passion for film and their resolve to pre-serve the film heritage of the country. SOFIA then set out to identify specific needs for the retrieval and restoration of endangered films –cinematic works that were in grave dan-ger of further decay. It also organized short-term training workshops in preservation and collec-tion management, and offered to advice various institutions in their archiving programs. With assistance coming from the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts, SOFIA was able to

program the restoration of some landmark films, including the first film produced by LVN in 1938-1939 and some key films by major filmmakers like Gerardo de Leon, Lamberto Avellana, Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal. In cooperation with institu-tions like the Philippine Information Agency and the National Film and Sound Archive in Australia, SOFIA organized training workshops and semi-nars on cataloguing, film and video preserva-tion, archives management, intellectual property rights, and a strategic planning workshop for a national audio-visual archives. Members of SOFIA have also represented the country in internation-al seminars and conferences. In 2008, SOFIA reorganized itself as the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film — Samahan ng mga Filipinong Arkivista para sa Pelukula, Inc. — with renewed vigor, a fresh batch of members, and guided by a new mission-vision.

History

Joseph Estrada delivering a speech at the 1st Southeast Asia and Pacific Audio-Visual

Archives Association (SEA-PAVAA) conference held in

Manila (1996)

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3 The Society of Film Archivists, the precursor of the

present-day SOFIA, is incorporated in June.

SOFIA’s founding mem-bers include: Agustin “Hammy” Sotto (CCP), Belina “Bel” Capul and Mary del Pi-lar (PIA), Annella Mendoza (UP Film Cent-er), Josephine “Jo” Atienza; Ricky Orellana and Violeta Velasco (Mowelfund); and Renato (Sonny) San Miguel.

1994SOFIA authors a “Draft of a Master Plan to save the Philippines’ Film Heritage.”

1996 - The SEAPAVAA or the

South East Asia & Pacific Audiovisual Archives Association is formed with SOFIA playing a key role.

– The first ever SEAPAVAA Conference, with the theme

“Film/Video Archiving in the Tropics,” is held in Manila in February.

1999

SOFIA and the Advertising Foun-dation of the Philippines forge a partnership towards the airing of “Sine Ginto” on PTV Channel 4, which shall showcase restored Filipino films classics.

2000

SOFIA in cooperation with the Cultural

Center of the Philip-pines, the Australian

Embassy as well as the National Film and Sound Archive stage the turn-over and premier of the new-ly-restored print of Giliw Ko, LVN Pictures' first film.

SOFIA reorganizes itself as the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film — Samahan ng mga Filipinong Arkivista para sa Pelukula, Inc. — with renewed vigor, a fresh batch of mem-bers, and guided by a new mission- vision.

2008

2010 The “Overlooked Films,

Underrated Filmmak-ers” film screening se-ries is launched at the Cultural Center of the Philippines with the film “Krimen: Kayo ang Humatol.” Gina Pareño is guest of honor.

SOFIA marks the 11th year of its founding through a festival of restored films – Ukay-Ukay: Where's the Archive? Among the titles in the program are Biaya ng Lupa (1959), Sanda Wong (1955) and Passionate Strangers (1966).

RONWALDO REYES RET-ROSPECTIVE: A Tribute to National Art-ist Fernando Poe, Jr. is held as part of the Cinemalaya Independ-ent Film Festival with

SOFIA acting as programmer and curator.

Screening of 1934 film “Brides of Sulu” dur-ing the 5th Silent Film

Festival

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TIMELINE

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Hammy Sotto partici-pates in the 1st Filipino Film Festival held from July 31 to August 20 at the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center, where a landmark selection of films were screened in time of the Philippine Centennial Celebration.

SOFIA scouts for an appro-priate site for a permanent archive facility

with the help from consultants

from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia – Mark Nizette and Guy Pether-bridge. After careful consideration, a property within the National Art Center in Mount Makiling was selected.

SOFIA members undergo extensive one month training in film archiving at the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra, Australia.

2000A strategic planning workshop is held at the Development Academy of the Philippines in Tagaytay to set future directions of the organization.

A training seminar on the preservation of Audio Visual materials is conducted at the Philippine Information Agency (PIA).

2004

2011

Film stills and posters courtesy of James de la Rosa

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Of the eight thousand or so movies produced since the advent of movie-making in the Philippines at the turn of the century, only three thousand are

still in existence while the other five thousand are irretriev-ably lost, never to be seen again by audiences. Of those still extant, a number are already in precarious condition and exhibiting different stages of deterioration. It is against this backdrop that SOFIA has been tirelessly working, through the years, on educating the public on the importance of film archiving; believing that, as stated in our mission-vision, we can learn more about ourselves as Filipinos through our audiovisual heritage.

Additionally, SOFIA has also been proactive in campaigning for the establishment of a National Audio Visual archive, a State-initiated centralized facility where various elements – film, tapes, audio files etc. – can be properly stored and subsequently made available to moviegoers.

Thus, in light of the recent founding and operation of the National Film Archives of the Philippines (NFAP), under the auspices of the Film Development Council of the Philip-pines (FDCP), SOFIA is here to lend its full and unequivocal support to this endeavor, and is ready to render whatever assistance may be needed. Our unwaivering commitment to this advocacy is best expressed by the words of our Presi-dent Emeritus, Dr. Clodualdo del Mundo Jr.: “The Society of Filipino Archivists for Film (SOFIA) will not merely be an interested bystander. It will continue to actively support the national archive and work towards creating awareness among industry people and the public about the value of developing a culture that values its audio visual heritage. There is no overestimating what a proud people can do.”

ADVOCACY

1. Giliw Ko (1939) by Carlos Vander Tolosa 2. Tunay na Ina (1939) by Octavio Silos3. Sanda Wong (1955) by Gerry de Leon 4. Maalaala Mo Kaya? (1954) by Mar S. Torres 5. Jack N Jill (1954) by Mar S. Torres

RESTORED FILMS

Tunay na Ina (1939)

Sanda Wong (1955)

6. MN (1954) 7. Dalagang Ilokana (1954) by Olive la Torre 8. Noli me Tangere (1961) by Gerry de Leon 9. Banta ng Kahapon (1977) by Eddie Romero 10. White Slavery (1985) by Lino Brocka 11

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FilmScreenings

Elwood Perez, Roselle Monteverde, Snooky Serna and Mother Lily during the special screening of “Summer Love”

Dr. Doy del Mundo Jr. and Gina Pareño during the screening of “Krimen: Kayo ang Humatol”

Gina Pareño answering questions for the audience during the screening of “Krimen: Kayo ang Humatol”

Marissa Delgado, Amalia Fuentes and Boots Anson-Roa during the screening of Isang Gabi, Tatlong Babae

Danny Zialcita, Liberty Ilagan and SOFIA members share a light moment during the screening of Masquerade

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The National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Cultural Center of Philippines with the assistance of the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film mount the year-long celebration of the Centennial of National

Artist for Film, Gerardo de Leon which includes film screenings, forums, and the publication of a book in 2014.

1.) Robert Arevalo reminisces working with his uncle National Artist Gerardo de Leon. His father Tito Arevalo (Gerardo’s brother) scored music in most of de Leon’s films.2.) NCCA Cinema Committee Chair Dr. Mike Rapatan, NCCA Exec. Director Emelita V. Almosara, Ms.. Liberty Ilagan, Philpost Chair Cesar Sarino, and NCCA Chair Felipe de Leon during the unveiling of the Gerardo de Leon commemorative stamp.3.) A bevy of stars and personalities graced the GERARDO DE LEON @ 100 launch: Julie de Vega, Ben Avancena, Imelda Ilanan, Anna-belle Santiago, Pepito Rodriguez, Gloria Sevilla, Mario Hernando, Elsa Payumo, Marita Zobel, Pempe Rodrigo, and Luz Valdez.4.) Liberty Ilagan, eldest daugher of Gerardo de Leon, delivers the response on behalf of the de Leon family.

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Giliw Ko restored version premiere (1998)

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The cause of preserving our audio-visual heritage is an undertaking that involves not only time and effort but also the necessary financial support. SOFIA, as a non-profit, non-govern-mental organization, cannot do it alone. We actively seek support for our programs from those who believe in our advocacy. Through your generosity, we can continue to pursue our efforts in areas such as education and awareness building, film appreciation via film screenings, film archiving workshops and training seminars, and the preservation and restoration of films..

If you’re interested in being a patron of SOFIA and would like to make a contribution either as an individual or as an institution, or if you’d like to be a partner in any of our projects, please get in touch with us through our secretariat c/o Vicky Belaramino of the CCP Media Arts Deptartment at 832-1125 loc. 1704 to 1705. Or you may email us at sofiaphils@gmail.com.

SupportS O F I A

MEMBER FILM ARCHIVES

ABS-CBN Film Archive

B1, ELJ Communications Center, Lopez Drive 1103, Quezon City, PhilippinesTelephone/Fax: 415-22-72 (loc. 5163) 410-24-55

MEMBER FILM ARCHIVES

CCP Film Archicve

CCP Complex,Tanghalang Pambansa, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City, PhilippinesTel. 832-1125 loc. 1704 to 1705

MEMBER FILM ARCHIVES MEMBER FILM ARCHIVES

MOWEL FUND Film Archive

66 Rosario Drive, Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines(632) 727-1915

WWW.ARKIVISTA.ORG