On the morning of his press lunch for “Bravo! Celebrating the Filipino,” Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala cut himself while shaving. When he walks into Tapella at Greenbelt 5 at noon, there is a small bandage on the side of his neck. It is an indication of the reverence in which he is held that no one in the media contingent mentions the obvious fact, at least not aloud. So he broaches it himself.
“I love music, I’m always listening to music. One day I’m listening to classical, the next day the Beatles, the next the Stylistics, it depends on my mood. I wake up, and while I’m shaving... Why do you think I have this?” he laughs, indicating the bandage. “I was singing along, and then —” He pantomimes blood spouting from the cut like an image from a Quentin Tarantino movie.
The first shock upon meeting Jaime Zobel de Ayala is finding how approachable and open he is. The second is discovering that he has a sense of humor bordering on the madcap. Zobel, the chairman emeritus of the Ayala Group of Companies, met the media to talk about Bravo Filipino, a showcase of Filipino talent in music, dance, fashion, the visual arts, photography, literature and film at the Ayala Malls.
Launched in 2008, Bravo Filipino pays homage to great artists of the past, recognizes the cultural icons of the present, and introduces internationally renowned Filipino artists to the local audience. The shows have not only drawn crowds but also reaped awards from the International Council of Shopping Centers, the International Association of Business Communicators, and other professional groups.
This year’s edition of Bravo Filipino will include concerts by the acclaimed pianist Cecile Licad in March, a fashion show by Inno Sotto in April, and a series of public art exhibitions called ArtPark in May.
Art is integral to everyday life in the Philippines, Zobel asserts. “Our goal is to create pockets of intimacy where people can interact with art. Small venues are more effective in connecting people to art. For instance, the kundiman has to be listened to intently.”
Appropriately, the first Bravo Filipino event for 2010 was “Harana,” performances of the best-loved kundimans at the Ayala Malls and at the recently-reopened Ayala Triangle Gardens. “I love the kundiman because it’s romantic and I’m a romantic at heart. I went to all the Ayala companies and said, ‘You know, you have young people in their early to mid-20s, can you tell them to show up? It’s not going to be long, just 30 or 40 minutes, and I want to hear their views.’ When I introduced the show I said, ‘We’re all here for an experiment. For a change, listen to the words, then have the music follow.’ They did, and they liked it.”
The kundiman recitals had an educational component: between numbers music professor Felipe Medina, Jr explained how the songs were adapted from the classics to make them uniquely Filipino. “Our test was: Will people (walking through the park) stop to listen to the music?” Zobel recalls. They did.
Last Christmas, Zobel took a kundiman group to Muntinlupa Prison. “There’s an area for minimum security prisoners who want to study,” he explains. “What Bea (his wife) did was put up a canteen and buy books, and there is a fantastic teacher there. They can earn a degree of sorts. The prisoners learn to write poems, you should hear what they’ve written. When they go out into the world, at least they have an education.
“Every Christmas Bea goes there, but this time she got sick and I didn’t know I was supposed to go as her representative. So I called the Harana sa Kasarinlan quartet and asked them to come with me to Muntinlupa. They said, ‘Ay naku Sir, huwag na.’ I said, ‘Do you think I would go if it were dangerous? I promise you, we just have to walk a bit, and then we will be in a nice room where you won’t feel like you’re in a prison at all.’ They were nervous and silent when we went in, but when they started playing the guitar, everyone sang along! It was an experience for us all.”
Filipinos have always communicated through song, he declares. “I would say 90 percent of Filipino homes have a guitar” (or its 21st-century equivalent, the videoke). “During the war we had nothing to listen to, but my mother had these records of zarzuela from Spain, the ones you played with the needle and the scratchy noises. My ear became accustomed to zarzuela.”
Someone asks about the selection criteria for the Bravo Filipino shows. “I’m not knowledgeable enough, so I consult a lot of people. The demands of the public could be lost on someone my age,” Zobel laughs. The Filipinas Heritage Library and Ayala Museum provide scholarship and expertise for the project; the library has a music collection going back to 1920.
One impetus for the Bravo Filipino project was finding Lesley Mobo, a Filipino designer working for Harrod’s in London. His fashion show kicked off the 2008 series at the formal launch of Greenbelt 5. The young designer had no time to prepare a new collection for the Philippines, so he brought his winter collection. Odd, but then this is the age of the global Filipino.
Of course Bravo Filipino has a photography component, and this year five “non-photographers” — a chef, a doctor, an engineer, a soldier, and a businessman — will exhibit photos of traditional artisans making handicrafts in the Philippines. The businessman happens to be Don Jaime, and when I point out that he’s hardly a “non-photographer,” he demurs. “I’m doing work I haven’t done in 20 years,” he explains. “I’d been shooting a lot in my studio, but now I’m in the field.
Iused to do film photography until they told me I’d better learn digital.” He reluctantly went digital because it’s often difficult to have film processed locally. “But film is coming back,” he notes, “and a lot of photographers are going back to film.”
The main part of the group interview done, Don Jaime moves to another favorite subject, the cinema. “Was The Hurt Locker shown here?” he asks. “An amazing movie! But not many people have seen it.” He is pleased when someone points out that the design of the Bravo Filipino logo is Avatar-like. “I saw a movie this weekend called Crazy Heart.
Country music has its own demands, Jeff Bridges is outstanding and he does his own singing. That young actor appears and sings with him, what’s his name, Colin Farrell. And Robert Duvall, who has also played a country singer, appears as a bartender.”
He goes on to critique the Spanish dialogue in the Filipino movie Baler, adding that the same events had been covered in a Spanish movie he’d seen in the 1950s. Then he asks for news of the John Sayles project Baryo, now filming in Bohol. “I understand the subject matter is quite controversial,” he says of the Sayles film, which stars Chris Cooper and Joel Torre and is set in the Philippine-American War. I point out that only recently was the Philippine-American War recognized as a war; before that it was regarded as an insurrection. Zobel has a good belly laugh at the ridiculousness of the term.
We talk about Filipino directors — Lino Brocka, Mike de Leon. He hasn’t seen Brillante Mendoza’s Cannes Festival winner Kinatay, and worries it may be too violent for him. “Marilou Diaz Abaya was the one I empathized with. Chris Valles from the Ayala Young Leaders Congress finished his studies at the University of Asia and the Pacific and his parents wanted him to graduate Economics. They couldn’t possibly accept the fact that they had saved all their lives to have their son go into film. So he graduated summa cum laude in Economics and he said, ‘Now can I go into film?’ He came to me and I said, ‘Look, I know very little about the movie industry, but I’ll put you in the hands of Marilou Diaz-Abaya.’ She took him under her wing, and now he does plays in Filipino, and has a television show.”
Don Jaime asks about upcoming films and indies, and adds, “Film is the art I know the least about. I love cinema, though I don’t know anything about it.” This is completely untrue. Many years ago, he produced a film by Roger Vadim, the director of And God Created Woman (the Brigitte Bardot vehicle) and Barbarella (the campy Jane Fonda sci-fi flick).
“It was an idea from one of our younger executives who thought himself an expert on film,” Don Jaime recalls. “He thought Ayala should attempt to produce one. At the time — do not ask me how or why — we were also into film distribution for our then-young mall cinemas.
“The services of director Roger Vadim were acquired cheaply as he was no longer the Vadim, but a fading producer-director. He directed, and we produced, a horrid film in which Forbes Park stood in for Bel-Air, California. Yes, it was that that kind of film, ergo, disaster. Vadim cast a new female ‘find’ who never amounted to much. It was ‘Goodbye, Bardot and Barbarella, Hello... What did you say your name was?’” he laughs.
“I was told that we eventually recovered from the debacle through multiple reruns on American TV channels. Eons later, I think we broke even. But I did get to go to the Cannes Film Festival, where I watched films from dawn to dusk. When was the film produced? Gads, I honestly forget. The ‘60s, perhaps?”
It’s time to wrap up the press lunch; the guest of honor has another engagement. “Shall we recap?” asks Maritoni Ortigas, head of the Ayala Museum.
“Well, the steak was good,” Don Jaime quips.
“Bravo Filipino, a continuing project since 2008, emphasizes the place of art in the life of the Filipino,” Ortigas says. “We believe that the Filipino is an artist at heart, and this artistry is expressed in music, dance, fashion, visual arts, photography and fashion. The fashion show this year will have the theme, ‘Empowered Women.’”
“What?!!” Zobel exclaims to general laughter. “I wasn’t told about that!”
But seriously. “My family is a matriarchy. Women!” he declares. “One was put in jail, one was an intellectual who also did jail time for conspiring with the Katipuneros. Women guided the company through its worst moments.”
The film program of Bravo Filipino 2010 is still under wraps, but there may be open-air screenings in the park. “I would love to see those old Rogelio de la Rosa movies,” Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala says as he makes his exit. “I hope you got some answers, all I talked about was movies!”