Boots' dilemma: To retire or not to retire?

MANILA, Philippines - Boots Anson-Roa and Mowelfund are like two peas in a pod. You can’t mention one without the other.

Thus, when Boots, Mowelfund executive director, tells you that yes, she’s been tossing and turning in bed thinking of retirement, you wonder — what, give up all those seven years as the driving force behind an institution which has given hope to lowly movie workers.

But that’s the sad truth. Boots has been praying for discernment about slowing down and turning Mowelfund over to a younger executive director. Her children are also advising her to “travel more, enjoy more.”

They’ve seen her worry about where and how she can get funds to keep the financially-strapped institution going. They’ve seen how she (and her deputy) slash her salary to almost half and give up some of her perks, like representational allowance, so Mowelfund can go on.

“I’ve called on Pete (her late husband) to help me decide,” Boots reveals. And when she did, she smelled, not candles and flowers that usually herald the presence of spirits, but cigarette smoke (Pete was a chain smoker).

Boots has already pinpointed her replacement: Grace Poe. She plans to formally sit down with FPJ and Susan Roces’ daughter after the holidays.

“We need an insider, someone willing to settle for practically nothing, and of course, someone with management ability,” Boots explains.

She still has many fund-raisers in mind. Next year, these will start on Jan. 30, when Boots turns 65. She will gather friends and supporters at Mowelfund; all well-wishers will be asked to bring donations instead of gifts for her.

“I will shoulder expenses for food, entertainment (two bands, one of them Music Network) and the sound system,” says Boots.

Then, there are invitations for more fund-raising film screenings abroad. Save for transportation fare, Boots doesn’t ask organizers (e.g. Philippine embassies, consulates, etc.) for anything else.

“I tell them to make the event their own,” Boots reveals.

Adopting this tack has worked many times over. Last year, Boots has raised thousands of dollars for Mowelfund by screening Himala and Botelya in the US. Next year, Tony Villamor, Philippine ambassador to Saudi Arabia and his wife Rosemarie, have invited Boots to hold a fund-raiser in Riyadh. It will be integrated into the ASEAN Festival in mid-February.

The ambassador must have heard about Boots’ cause and how successful it is.

That’s why when detractors say Mowelfund will fold up, Boots just holds her chin up and soldiers on. She tells her staff, who are willing to work overtime for no pay at all, to just do their best.

“Mowelfund and teaching (in UP and Ateneo) are my way of giving back to the industry,” Boots muses.

The industry, in turn, continues to pour blessings on Boots. At a time when some of her colleagues have retired, Boots is still as active as ever, doing one project after another.

“Good thing that I’m not sickly,” she reveals.

Moviegoers will see Boots as the matriarch of a Filipino-Chinese clan in Regal Films’ entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival, Mano Po 6: A Mother’s Love.

Boots shares many intense dramatic scenes with Sharon Cuneta who plays her daughter. This is Boots’ third time to work with Sharon, so the chemistry between them is built-in.

“We feed on each other,” Boots observes.

A highlight of their scenes together is the death of Boots’ character, which she describes as emotional “but not mawkish.” That scene marks a turning point in the movie, and each of the other characters are never the same again after that.

Her greatest challenge, however, was not in making that scene as realistic as possible, but in delivering her Chinese lines (she plays a Chinoy here). Boots’ background in speech and drama came in handy.

“I used word association and visualization — tools in drama — to memorize my lines,” she reveals. For her line “Di chiao ko kay ki (you take care, which she told Sharon), Boots remembered the key word chiao by associating it with chow (rice) and ciao (Italian for good-bye). That did the trick.