CEBU, Philippines - After sweeping several awards in last year’s Sinulog filmmaking contest, The FREEMAN photojournalist Aldo Nelbert Banaynal came back to bag the major win and several awards in the Sinulog Video Documentary Festival this year with his entry “fstops”, a video documentary on the terrible effects of fire in the community captured in the photos of two Cebuano photojournalists during actual coverage.
Fstops, produced and directed by Banaynal, features actual footage and coverage of fire incidents in barangays Tejero, Guadalupe and Carreta in Cebu City and fire incidents in Mandaue City.
The focus of this documentary is the strong faith of the Cebuanos that grows stronger even in times of tragedy. This is shown through the photographs of fire victims carrying the Sto. Niño images they saved over other belongings from their burning houses.
The FREEMAN photojournalist Reynan Villena who was the narrator and the co-cinematographer said over the years of working in the media and covering fire incidents, they noticed that the image of Sto. Niño is always present.
“First among gipakita ang kalisod na maagian sa photojournalists when covering tragic events just to capture the elements that make a photograph speak for itself — ang kalipay, kaguol, kasakit, kagubot. Then we tried to explain why the Sto. Niño is always present during tragedies,” Villena said.
To satisfy their curiosity, they consulted historians, priests, psychologists and other proper authorities that can explain the Cebuanos’ strong faith to the Sto. Niño especially during fires.
“Nahibaw-an dayon namo na ang Sto, Niño first nakit-an sa usa pud ka sunog. In a house where everything was burned out except for this one box containing the image of a Sto. Niño. Ang practice man gani kay i-tuslob ang Sto. Niño sa tubig aron daw mapawong ang kayo,” Villena said.
Fstops is the grand prize winner in the video-documentary category.
It also garnered various special awards such as Best in Cinematography (Banaynal and Villena), Best Story, Best Narrator (Villena) and Best Director. The documentary won P50,000 cash prize and trophies.
Q: What inspired you to produce this documentary?
Banaynal: My desire to make people see how important is the role of media in portraying the truth and handing over of messages. In this documentary I chose to document the life of photojournalists where I can relate myself to. I can say that I also get inspiration from my fellow photojournalists who go to these dangerous coverages knowing the risks they have to endure just to capture that precise moment that newspapers need to tell the story. But most of all what inspired me to make this video are the very peculiar sightings of people carrying Sto. Niños during these times of tragedy.
Q: What are challenges you met along the way while making this documentary?
Banaynal: The greatest challenge we’ve had maybe is time constraint, knowing how little time I have as a mediaman I have to juggle work and filming. Also during actual fire coverages it’s quite hard to do multiple tasks because Reynan and I have to keep switching from still mode to video, stills for the newspaper photos and video for the footages needed for the film. We also had a hard time finding credible personalities to give the film more weight and depth in terms of information. Also we only had little time in editing; in fact, the film was not even finished because my editor went abroad. My brother had to take over.”
Q: What message are you trying to tell the viewing public in this video?
Banaynal: Very simple. Keep the faith and keep safe.
Q: How do you differentiate “fstops” from other entries?
Banaynal: I wanted to have a fresh approach. So I deviated away from the cliché “lawm na binisaya” para mas maka-relate ang mga tawo. As if lang na naminaw ra sila sa ilang amigo or amiga nga nag-istorya. But what I focused more here is the emotions of people, so I played the elements around and composed it unchronologically. I wanted people to feel the movie. I want them to laugh, cry, to feel the fear. I just hope it worked.
Q: How long have you been making films and documentaries?
Banaynal: Ga-start gyud ako hilig sa films when I was still young. Nagdaku ko with Steven Spielberg movies, kinsa man pu’y wala diba? Actually diha gyud ga-start ako hilig and somehow naka-ingun ko sa ako self na someday I’m gonna create movies as spellbinding and as imaginative as his. Just like my piece last year, ReGenesis, a Science Fiction short film that depicted a post apocalyptic Cebu. It was the first time Cebu has seen that kind of movie being done here and what’s impossible is how I connected a story of aliens and robots to the Sto. Niño.
Last year, Banaynal’s short film “ReGenesis” won third place in the film category and bagged special awards such as best in musical scoring, best story, best in production design and best in special effects. He also won second place in the Photo contest last year. His photo was used in the official Sinulog ads this year.
His entry this year for the film category “Tao Tao” was also one of nominees for the best film.
Other winners in this year’s Sinulog Film and Video Documentary Festival who were awarded last January 28 at SM Cinema were:
Video Documentary Category
Best Picture:
First place: Fstops by Aldo Nelbert Banaynal
Second Place: Pag-asa by Noel Samson
Third Place: On the Trail of Sinulog Dancers by Arneil Dawal
Short Film
Best Picture/Film:
First place: Mananahi by Franz Arrogante
Second place: Lingkawas by Fedwilyn Villarba and Ralph Garcia
Third place: Pagtuo, Paglaum, Paghigugma by Dominic Carpio.
Best Editing: Allan Obienza (Feeling the Faith)
Best Sound Engineering: Allan Obienza (Feeling the Faith)
Best Director : Fedwilyn Villarba (Lingkawas)
Best Cinematography: Franz Arrogante (Mananahi)
Best Supporting Actor: Jude Granado (Supot)
Best Supporting Actress: Fedwilyn Villarba (Lingkawas)
Best Child Performer: Kirby Jean Sayre (Niña)
Best Production Design: Franz Arrogante (Mananahi)
Best Actor: Eli Razo (Feeling the Faith)
Best Actress: Florena Barriga (Dagang Guwang)
Best Screenplay: Fatrick Tabada (Dagang Guwang)
— with Cheenelyn P. Latoja and Eden Grace P. Odever, SWU Mass Com Interns/BRP (FREEMAN)