NCCA LAMENTS NORA EXCLUSION

By Evelyn Macairan

The Philippine Star

June 22, 2014

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Source: http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/06/22/1337570/ncca-laments-nora-exclusion
Image: TV5

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MANILA, Philippines - The decision of Malacanang not to proclaim multi-awarded actress Nora Aunor as a National Artist for film is a big loss to the movie industry, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) said yesterday.

NCCA chairman Felipe de Leon Jr. told The STAR he was puzzled why Malacañang rejected their recommendation to include the 61-year-old Aunor (Nora Villamayor in real life) in the country’s newest batch of National Artists.

“I cannot understand, Malacañang has not yet given an explanation. This is a big loss to the film industry because it lost an opportunity to have another artistic role model,” said De Leon.

He said they would ask Malacañang to reveal the reason behind Aunor’s exclusion.

“We would ask if there was a big reason for it to decline her nomination. If there is no big reason, then may be we would try to ask Malacañang to reconsider,” he added.

Malacañang declared on Friday six outstanding Filipinos as National Artists. They are Alice Reyes for dance, Francisco Coching (posthumous) for visual arts, Cirilo Bautista for literature, Francisco Feliciano and Ramon Santos for music and Jose Maria Zaragoza for architecture, design and allied arts.

De Leon recalled that during the deliberation of the NCCA board of commissioners and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) board of trustees on the nominees for the new set of National Artists, Aunor had one of the highest ratings.

He praised Aunor for her outstanding artistic achievements. “She is a good actress. She is able to give meaning to being an artist. Her style is to be so absorbed in her work, and she shows off the real Filipino in the roles that she portrays,” he said.

There were speculations that Malacañang might have turned down Aunor’s nomination because of her drug conviction in the United States. But the NCCA head said Aunor has served the penalty for her crime.

“This issue is no longer important for us,” he said.

Another rumor was that Aunor had a tax evasion case, but De Leon said this was never substantiated.

Aunor, who has been called Philippine cinema’s “superstar,” began her career as a singer and later became recognized for being an exemplary actress.

NORA AUNOR

By: ISAGANI CRUZ

MINI CRITIQUE

The Philippine Star

Novemebr 14, 2013

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Source:  http://www.philstar.com/education-and-home/2013/11/14/1256394/nora-aunor

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Rumors that Nora Aunor is about to be proclaimed National Artist have been circulating the past few weeks. Everyone involved in the process of nomination is bound by a vow of secrecy, but since I was not involved this year (I usually am), I can speak freely about why I think Nora Aunor deserves the title.

I actually nominated her for the title a long time ago, but was eventually voted down, because there were, at that time, quite a number of film directors who were deserving of the honor.

There are still a few individuals who seriously question two things: first, why a film actor should be a National Artist, and second, why Nora Aunor.

First, that film is as much of an art as any of the other categories is clear. There have been several film artists named as National Artists: Gerardo de Leon (1982), Lino Brocka (1991), Ishmael Bernal (1999), Eddie Romero (2003), Fernando Poe Jr. (2006), and Manuel Conde (2009).

All these artists, however, were directors. Even Poe was named not only as an actor but also as a director. The question remains why an actor (“actor” is the politically correct term for all performers, male or female) can be a National Artist. After all, in film theories during the last century, film was always considered a director’s medium. It is the director who puts together the elements of a film, acting being only one of those elements.

Poe, however, opened the door to actors, because his achievement as an actor was considerable. It is impossible to think of him only as a director; his iconic image is that of both actor and director.

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The early 20th century theories argued that the juxtaposition of images or sequence of shots could make it appear that an actor was happy, sad, or angry (thereby negating the actual emotion felt by the actor). That was last century. In this century, thanks to newer theories of film, acting is now considered as much of an art as that of a director. Actors actually take advanced degrees in acting, such as the Associate in Fine Arts in Acting for Film of the New York Film Academy. It has helped that several foreign actors have shown that they can take on varied roles and still create credible and powerful characters.

No one today should doubt that acting is an art.

The second question is why Nora Aunor. There are other Filipino actors, after all, that have shown similar versatility, depth of emotion, command of facial expressions, subtlety of subtexts, and other elements of film acting.

Take the list of skills that a great film actor should have, as Jeremiah Comey lists them in “The Art of Film Acting,” namely, concentration, not knowing, acceptance, giving and receiving, and relating. Each of these skills needs years of training and experience. One wondrous thing about Nora Aunor is that she has all of these skills, not because she had formal training (she briefly studied the Stanislavski Method and acted in workshop-intensive PETA), but because she had them from the very beginning. Even when she was just starting out and had to take on juvenile roles, she already showed an instinctive grasp of the art of acting.

My 1984 book, “Movie Times,” had her on the cover, for good reason: she acted in many of the films I dissected. Although the chapters in that book dealt with film directors (it was the 20th century, after all), I still had to discuss her acting in the films by those directors. She was, in a sense, already pushing me then to expand my idea of film art to cover not just directors but actors.

An artist must be judged by her or his best works. (Otherwise, we would forget Shakespeare, who wrote some really awful plays.) Nora Aunor will be remembered forever for her roles in “Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos” (1976), “Bona” (1980), “Himala” (1982), “The Flor Contemplacion Story” (1995), and “Thy Womb” (2012), among others.

Nora Aunor has been recognized through nominations and awards in the Berlin Film Festival, Cairo Film Festival, and Venice Film Festival – all major film festivals – as well as other film festivals in Australia, Belgium, Dubai, Macau, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Russia, and Singapore. Needless to say, she has won many times over all the Philippine awards possible.

These are achievements on the level of art. I do not even mention her popular tags as one of the Ten Asian Best Actresses of the Decade, the Actress of the Century, the Philippines’ Best Actress of All Time, and of course “Superstar.”

THE NORANIAN FACTOR IN GUY’S LIFE

Nestor de Guzman, Gordon Doria, Art Barbadillo, Bibsy M. Carballo,
Ricky Lee, Maru Cusi Tatco, Jonathan Catunao, Gilbert Guy Ferrer

By: BIBSY M. CARBALLO

LIVE FEED

The Philippine Star Entertainment

November 21, 2012; Wednesday

Page E-3

If there would be any word that could describe Nora Aunor then and now, it would have to be “unpredictable.”  From the day she was born, the bronze superstar called Guy appeared to follow the disposition of the moment, breaking many rules but getting away with them.  Her love life and her misbehavior are fodder for gossip to this day.  Her awards in film, recording and theater are too many to enumerate.  She had close to 30 homes; her earnings would have run into the multi-millions, yet she has little to show for it.

In the acting field, her awards have come from Brussels, Cairo, Berlin Cannes, Singapore, Green Planet (Hollywood) and the recent Venice Film Festival.  Obviously, there is no Filipino award-giving body that hasn’t given her a Best Actress award and even a Lifetime Achievement trophy.  She is not called the Superstar for nothing.

But even superstars have their downside.  Nora left for the US sometime in 2004 and stayed there for eight years.  Perhaps, she enjoyed the life of an ordinary person away from the problems of a celebrity.  It is rumored she got into trouble with the US Immigration, asked to serve community service, was released with all cases erased and wonder of wonders, given a 10-year US visa.  People were astounded.  Walang himala?

Guy returns home.  TV5 had offered her a contract; the late Mario O’Hara directed her in a mini-series; Cannes Best Director Brillante Mendoza’s film Thy Womb brought her an award in Venice; the same film will compete at the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF); and ABS-CBN is launching the newly-restored film Himala with a book Ricky Lee was commissioned to write.  Guy is happily where she belongs.

The restored Himala film will be launched on Dec. 4, 4 p.m., at the Shangri-La Plaza Cinema 1, together with a documentary titled Himala Ngayon by sari Dalena and Keith Sicat.  Ricky’s coffee-table book Sa Puso ng Himala has the full screenplay, English translation, more than 100 full-color photographs and interviews with cast and crew.  The 1,000 hardbound copies at P1,000 each are almost sold out.  A softbound version limited to 4,000 copies at P500 with exactly the same content will be available at the launch (for details, call 426-4961, 928-9557 or 0917-5331948).

When informed by Leo Katigbak of ABS-CBN’s Film Archive and Special Events of the plan for the film launch and the book in early December, writer Ricky thought it would be a cinch.  No sooner had he agreed to the project when voluminous problems arose.  Director Ishmael Bernal had long been gone; cinematographer Ike Jarlego had just died; those on the set including this columnist as line producer couldn’t remember details from 30 years back; and Bernal’s assistant director Warlito Teodoro could not be traced.  What was Ricky to do?

He went to the Noranians, the Manila core group of Nora Aunor advocates in various parts of the globe who call themselves ICON and NFF (Nora’s Friends Forever) who promote the legacy of the superstar as a world-class artist.  It was the best decision he ever made.

According to Nestor de Guzman, a workshopper of Ricky in 2002, it is this group that went work quickly and efficiently:  On Aug. 2, relates Marie Cusi Tatco, they met with Ricky who asked them to assist in the research.  Mari searched for the root of the Himala story, the apparition in Cabra of the Virgin to a girl named Belinda Villas, and spoke to her and her husband.

Gilbert Ferrer and Jonathan catunao went to the National Library and Mowelfund to photocopy every material that had to do with Himala.  NFF members helped in transcription – among them Michael Obenieta in Kansas; Deogracias Antazo in Saudi Arabia; Marites de Vera in Dubai; Ellen Alejano in Autralia; Nikos dacanay in Thailand; Glorina Tugade with Bayer Philippines; and Gordon Doria in the Philippines.

Jonathan and Mari followed director Trina Dayrit to Antipolo on Aug. 9 to interview her in-between takes of her teleserye and the reached out to Baby K. Jimemez through Internet.   They waited two weeks while Manila was “underwater” because of the habagat rains to interview Imee marcos, head of Experimental Cinema (ECP) that produced Himala.

Meantime, Ricky’s efforts were gaining ground.  Charlie Perlata of Roper’s studio, official Himala photographer, submitted photos rescued from 30 years of flood and fungi.  Joel Lamangan, crowd director of the stampede scene of 3,000 extras, found Bernal notes of that scene.  At the wake of his brother Ike, Edmund Jarlego willingly shared memories from his brother of Himala.  Ernesto Enrique sent be Virgie Moreno’s UP Film Center to Ilocos to document Himala had information to share.  Jun Arvin Gudoy, current chief tourism officer of Ilocos, introduced them to some extras in the stampede which led to the actual spot of the tree in the movie where Elsa saw the Virgin.  The sineguelas tree was still in the spot they left it.  Waiting for another Himala?