CELEBRITY SALIN GAMIT FESTIVAL OPENS

The Film Academy of the Philippines’ Celebrity Salin Gamit festival was opened on Wednesday, April 25 at the spacious third level of the Ali Mall at the Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City. It will run up to May 19.

Already on sale are personal possessions—including bags, clothes and even paintings-- donated by film industry personalities, including Gloria Romero, Cherrie Gil, Director Neil ‘Buboy’ Tan, Evangeline Pascual, Noel Trinidad, Giselle Sanchez, Bella Flores, Boots Anson-Roia, Delia Razon and Maria Isabel Lopez. Others have also signified their intention to donate their own possessions.

Sales for the opening day of the festival totalled more than P10,000, according to early reports.

The festival is a takeoff from the Filipino family tradition of pamana or inheritance in which a certain valued object or thing is turned over to someone who is expected to cherish it for the sake of memory and/or love.

FAP Director General Leo G. Martinez opening the Salin Gamit festival at Ali Mall.


Guests Bella Flores and Boots Anson-Roa attend the opening.

The idea of Salin-Gamit is a bigger and more organized way of this handing-over practice in which celebrities are asked to donate a certain object or possession associated with any of their past achievements and accomplishments in the field of entertainment. These will be sold or auctioned during the festival.

The festival has two main objectives: to keep the achievements of outstanding Filipino movie personalities alive in the memory of the present and coming generations; and to encourage Filipinos to collect valued objects related to Philippine cinema in line with the campaign to nurture national pride.

Proceeds from the sale or auctions as well as other activities of the festival will be used to finance the projects of the FAP, as well as the various member guilds under its umbrella.

The festival is assured of endorsement and support of various government and private agencies.

Costumes used in local films are exhibited at the festival.

DG Martinez and FAP Chairman Espiridion Laxa during the
ribbon-cutting.

Every day for the duration of the 25-day-long festival, fans and guests will enjoy non-stop shopping and entertainment from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

An entrance fee of only P25 will be charged though students will be granted discounts or lower fees. Inside the third level venue, the public will be treated to various featured activities, events and exhibits.
Movie stars and personalities will grace the venue on an alternating schedule to meet and be with their fans.

But best of all, movie fans can buy the many items used as props or costumes in the various movies they have seen through the years.
In return, the buyer will receive a special certificate from the Academy attesting to the authenticity of the items.

Sponsored by Hewlett Packard, the first Celebrity Salin-Gamit Festival is designed to establish the foundation for what could be an annual event that will surely prove to be a treat for local movie fans.