I wish to welcome back to Cebu Dr. Michael Cullinane, a long-time Cebuanist, to coin a term, whose life has been without doubt tied directly to Cebu through its political history. Mike, who’s an associate director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is in Cebu to launch his latest in a series of books, “The Battle for Cebu: Andrew S. Rowan and the Siege of Sudlon (1899-1900),” published by the University of San Carlos Press.
The launch will be held this Saturday, January 10 at the BPI Cebu Library, the second floor of the venerable old pre-war BPI Building at the corner of Magallanes and Burgos Streets, just a few steps away from the Magellan’s Kiosk. The launch is open to the public which is just as well since Mike will only stay for a week in Cebu before flying back to the United States. Copies of the book will be discounted during the launch so those who wish to buy a copy of this 300 page-plus tome might as well attend and hear the anecdotes that Mike the funny-man will share on this occasion.
All told, the book chronicles the American attempt to seize control of the headquarters of the united guerrilla forces in Cebu led by the generals who refused to surrender to American rule (Arcadio Maxilom and Juan Climaco, among many, many others). The book begins by presenting the diary of Col. Andrew S. Rowan who styled himself in his own writings as “The Conqueror of Cebu.” Mike then pieces together the events before, during and after the siege using a host of newspaper accounts and interviews that were conducted some years after the siege.
The launch is quite timely as this month marks the 115th anniversary of that siege, if I’m not mistaken. And Mike had wanted the launch to take place at or near where the camps of Maxilom and the other generals in Sudlon, at or near the same spot that would later also become the headquarters of the famed World War II Cebu guerrillas led by Col. James Cushing.
It would be great if a film could be made of this early period of resistance to American rule leading to the siege of Sudlon but judging from the fate of “Bonifacio”, this year’s Best Picture in the Metro Manila Film Festival, the producers would go bankrupt. The Bonifacio film went the same route as the “El Presidente” movie of last year about Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo: winning the hearts of film critics but not the movie-goers. What gives?
Let me venture to find some answers as to why Manila movie-goers, which provides the main bulk of MMFF revenues, would rather watch comedies and horror films that were also competing with this epic movie.
The most obvious, repeated often enough, is that many of these movie-goers disdain serious movies because of the real-life difficulties they are going through. Or more properly, the poorer the people, the less of serious films or they will feel more depressed. Besides, historical movies take time to digest and needs attention to detail. Not the comedy films. You can even go to the toilet inside these movie houses and still laugh as you listen to the dialogues. No effort on the brain at all. And so the comedy movies get to break the box office.
A second reason may perhaps be that history was either taught so perfectly well that these movie-goers felt there was nothing new to learn about either Aguinaldo or Bonifacio. Or the opposite may be true: history teachers just brushed aside the roles these two political rivals played so that movie-goers are not as curious to want to know more.
Whatever the case, much to the disdain of history buffs like us, Vice Ganda has gotten the nod of MMFF movie-goers and history went out of the tills even before the MMFF week ended.
Will there be another historical film in the MMFF soon then?