Two high school kids have been inspired to make more films after finishing the documentary film Heroes Wall which they entered in a film festival last year and are now granted funding from the National Commission for the Culture and Arts for an upcoming film.
Macush Taynan and Jaime Bernabe II said that making the Heroes Mural in June last year has motivated them to create more films in the future. They were actually the leaders of a team of young film makers from Baguio and Benguet who documented the making of the mural work and had the film documentary entered to the Sine Abreño 4th Abrenian Heritage Film Festival (AHFF) 2022 in September last year.
The Taynan-Bernabe team was also the youngest participants to the filmfest with their ages ranging from 16 to 19 years old.
“After doing our first official film Heroes Wall (Macush Taynan and I), we began to develop a want to develop more films in the future,” said Bernabe, son of radio broadcaster and namesake Jaime Sr. sometimes called the “voice of God” with his Ten Commandments in the Catholic Church owned DZWT/DZWR.
The duo may not have won the top prizes in the Abra Film Festival but it was the motivation for them to seek funding from the NCCA which was granted. The two are now grantees of the 2023 Competitive Grants Call for Proposal Program from the NCCA’s Sub-Committee on the Arts –National Committees on Literary, Music and Cinema – Cinema 2Category Short Film Production/DocumentaryExperimental/Animation.
Bernabe added: “we wanted it more to be grand and with bigger funding to be able to create better films… Luckily our proposal got accepted and hopefully we will be starting to create the films by summer…”
Bernabe, 18, and Taynan, 16, will be making a film about the “Early Settlers of La Trinidad and the Coffee Culture of Benguet.”
The two documented the making of the third phase of the Heroes: Wall of Fame of Cordillera Athletes at the Baguio Athletic Bowl which was launched in May 2 last year and inaugurated on June 29 also last year.
The two acted as producers, directors, photo editor and comptroller to manage the meager fund they had to come out with the film, said Taynan’s father Clint, a photographer and film maker who is now developing young film makers.
The “Wall” features 32 excelling Baguio and Cordillera athletes and sports icons and were made to inspire young athletes to work hard to excel in the sport they have chosen. The murals were made by Pigeon Lobien, acting as team leader, with Ged Alangui, Gladys Labsan and Harold Banario, a mixed martial artist of the famed Team Lakay and who competed in the Brave FC in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The said phase was backed by the Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines. PML
