DON JOSE NEPOMUCENO: THE FATHER OF PHILIPPINE CINEMA
By: Nenuca M. Jose


Jose Nepomuceno was born in 1893 to a family of painters and sculptors in Quiapo. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree at San Beda College, then studied fine arts at the University of the Philippines but completed an Electrical Engineering course.

Young Jose was still a student in San Beda when he viewed Edward Meyer Gross’ film La Vida de Rizal (The Life of Rizal) which was shown at the Cinematografo Gran Oriente, a theater located behind the Quiapo Church. The film was one-hour-long. and people flocked to see the film because it was the first local feature on the national hero.

Producer Harry Brown, cinematographer Charles Martin and scenarist Edward Gross formed the Rizalina Photoplay Company to produce the film. The film, which has 22 scenes, starts with a view of the Philippines prior to Rizal’s birth and chronologically traces his career through Europe, his exile in Dapitan and his imprisonment at Fort Santiago. The young Jose Nepomuceno was captivated and definitely stimulated.

Nepomuceno put up an Electro–photo studio, the Parheli, which occupied an entire block on Plaza Goiti (now Plaza Lacson). Because photography equipment procured from abroad was expensive, the innovative Nepomuceno utilized big jars of water containing salt and galvanized iron coils to devise transformers for arc lamps. The artificial lights enabled him to shoot evening parties, political rallies and carnival affairs.

Nepomuceno also learned to make subtitles for film imports in Spanish and English. When Gross went out of business, he sold his French Pathe’ camera-- considered to be the best of its kind then-- to Nepomuceno. After conducting a series of experiments with the camera, Nepomuceno established Malayan Movies in 1917. But it was not until two years later that he went into movie production.

After buying the equipment of the Rizalina film company, Nepomuceno focused on ceoverages of real news events, taking footages of the funeral of Doña Estefaña Velasco vda de Osmeña, the first wife of former President Sergio Osmeña Sr. He also documented through films a series on Filipino industries. He even made a filmed poll on Filipinos’ reactions to Woodrow Wilson’s victory in the American presidential elections. As a cameraman, Nepomuceno supplied pictures to Pathe News or Paramount in Hollywood at $2.00 per foot.

Other significant newsreels Nepomuceno was able to capture and cover included the great earthquake of Japan in 1918. To reach Yokohama, he hitched abroad a U.S. tanker. His footage of the quake damage was the first newsreel taken by a Filipino outside of the Philippines. Although Pathe had a correspondent closer to Japan, Nepomuceno was commissioned for the job.

Nepomuceno used a one-hectare lot in San Juan del Monte in the vicinity of Manini Street for his Malayan movie studio. Its dedication read in Spanish: a las condeciones y los gustos del pais (to the conditions and tastes of the country). In a way, he was accentuating the Filipinos’ aspirations for independence from the United States.

As a fledgling filmmaker, Nepomuceno assumed the roles of director, cinematographer, scrip[twriter, electrician and property man all rolled into one. His wife Isabel Acuña of Iloilo was the company’s treasurer, casting director, supervisor of coiffure and make–up.

Making Dalagang Bukid was quite an experience. Nepomuceno used his only camera-- a cigar box–type camera mounted on a tripod. Since motors were not in use yet, the film transport level was cranked with the right hand steadily in one direction to prevent jerky movements while the left hand adjusted the camera sideways. Both hands were thus simultaneously cranking in different directions. It required some expertise to get accustomed to.

For every change of angle or setting, the players waited as the camera was repositioned. There were no klieg lights. The sun provided the light. If it rained the shooting was packed up until the sun came out again.

Dalagang Bukid, according to an advertisement in The Manila Times dated September 21-24, 1919, was scheduled for showing September 25, 1919.

The film was based on the popular zarzuela, written by Hermogenes Ilagan, the grand old man of the Ilagan clan that later produced such motion picture stalwarts as Gerardo de Leon, Angel Esmeralda, Tito Arevalo and the younger Robert Arevalo.

Honorata (Atang) de la Rama and Marcelino Ilagan, who starred in the stage version, also appeared in the movie. M.S. Martin, writing for The Graphic at that time, commented that “the first venture, while it received flattering comments, was of poor quality compared with the highest developments of the times. Nevertheless, the result showed a better hope for the future than those early attempts especially in photography. The earlier ones were blurred and too faint, showing poor control of light.” M.S. Martin incidentally, later on became the general manager and leading novelist of Liwayway Publications.

From the very beginning, Jose and his brother Jesus-- who later joined him in the enterprise-- were bothered by an obvious lack of capital. They had no movie experience just like the others who came before them but they knew photography. Celso Ad. Carunungan described that in those years, the photographer was the most important person in movie-making and the good ones were extremely expensive and hard to find. So the Nepomuceno had a great advantage over all the others.

But lack of capital hindered the expansion and improvement of Malayan Movies. Even after ten years, it was still capitalized at only P100,000. Jesus was even quoted then as saying that with about P100,000 more, “Malayan Movies could produce better pictures.”

To add to this financial problem, the company suffered two serious setbacks when their processing plant in Pandacan and later their studio in San Juan were gutted by fire, one after the other.

However, the Nepomuceno brothers didn’t give up. Although they moved doggedly, they went on to produce some of the most significant films then. These included the films The Filipino Women (1927) and Sampaguita (1928). Carunungan later noted in his writings that these two films were considered by the critics then as “good enough for exhibition anywhere in the world, without fear of arousing such unfavorable comment.” These two films were even exported to the US and written about in Europe.

Philippine Cinema then was revolving around the Nepomucenos. Interestingly, despite the meagerness of its equipment and facilities, M.S. Martin wrote in an article that “the moving picture industry in the Philippines had some peculiarities of its own. The accepted ideas and practices for the control of light in the temperate climate cannot be used in the Philippines with satisfactory results. Hence, the need of research for the peculiar needs. Aside from the use of different chemicals for proper treatment of films from tropical exposure, the Malayan Movies has given an original contribution to effective light control.”

Malayan Movies made several Spanish films like La Venganza de Don Silverio (1921), Un Capullo Marchito (1922) and Hoy O Nunca Besome (1923), in which the sub-titles were in Spanish. In 1926, the brothers shocked the country with the movie Tatlong Hambog which became a notorious landmark in Filipino filmmaking since it was the first locally-produced film that showed passionate kissing scenes. It starred the most popular vaudeville stars then-- Elizabeth (Dimples) Cooper and Luis Tuazon.

Jose Nepomuceno started it all.