VETERAN actress Vilma Santos said that because she once tried to look for copies of her old films but failed, she would now be advocating for the restoration of locally produced classics.
“When I got pregnant with my second son, Ryan Christian, I was bedridden for five months. It was a difficult pregnancy, partly because I was already 42 then. At the time, I sent my staff to the National Archives of the Philippines to request for copies of all my movies,” Vilma told Inquirer Entertainment during the opening of “Vilma Night,” a two week-long exhibit at the Archivo 1984 in Makati.
“It’s so unfortunate because we learned that a lot of my memorable films, like ‘Lipad Darna Lipad,’ have no master copies. I also heard that the original copy is in Malaysia, but nothing has shown up even up to this day.”
According to Vilma, even private organizations like the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film and Sagip Pelikula: ABS-CBN Film Restoration Project, as well as the government-funded Film Development Council of the Philippines, are actively seeking out master copies of old movies and restoring them.
“It’s so unfortunate that a lot of the copies are now gone, while some ended up getting wet when the places they were stored in got flooded. Sayang! I really hope these groups will find more copies because I’m very proud of the movies I’ve made. A lot of them are still relevant till now,” the actress stressed.
This is also why she promised to help reacquire and restore old movies, “those that aren’t necessarily mine, but something we can be proud of. I’m aware that we lack funds and that it’s expensive to restore films. Given the chance, I hope to secure the funding needed. I will work on that, I promise,” said Vilma.
“Vilma Night” features a rare exhibit of posters, magazines and never-before-seen photos, as well as vinyl records of Vilma’s recordings in her six decades in the industry. As the guest of honor, Vilma led the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony. As a treat, she was shown 20 clips of her most memorable films and encouraged to recall her memorable experiences while doing them.
A framed poster of her film “Burlesk Queen,” had Vilma reminiscing the time she underwent training on the art of burlesque.
The “Vilma Night” exhibit took three months to mount, said curators Jerome Gomez and Erwin Romulo. (Marinel Cruz © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
