Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), in partnership with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), has launched a new program that aims to empower documentary filmmakers in the country.
Called “SineSaysay: Documentary Film Lab and Showcase,” the new program encourages both amateur and professional filmmakers to join the agency to push documentary filmmaking in the country, advocating to make this form of cinema mainstream, as well as to educate and entertain the Filipino masses on the rich and colorful history of the Philippines.
The project will have two elements. First is the film lab where 18 documentary filmmakers will go through a six-month residential program attending intensive workshops with the country’s seasoned documentarians until they are able to develop their projects. The next is the film showcase where the documentaries will be screened at the 2019 Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino, a non-competition film festival that showcases Filipino films in theaters nationwide.
Inspired by the success of Sunday Beauty Queen, which recently bagged the best international documentary award at the 5th London Labour Film Festival, the inaugural SineSaysay’s main objective is to develop documentary films focusing on often-unvisited events in our history that shaped our country to what it is today.
“One of our initiatives for next year is to mainstream the importance of documentary films as a form. We are fortunate enough that the NHCP is partnering with us in this project. Apart from pushing docu films, we also wanted to train the spotlight on Philippine history and highlight its importance,” FDCP Chairman Liza Diño told the press at a recent press conference held at Cinematheque Centre in Manila.
According to Diño, SineSaysay will be divided into two categories: The Bagong Sibol Documentary Lab and the Feature Documentary Showcase. Bagong Sibol is open for emerging filmmakers working on their first or second documentary full feature films. Six projects and its fellows will undergo a series of workshops and consultations in developing their short documentary films. Of these, two projects will be awarded a grant of P700,000 to develop the full feature versions of their project.
For the Feature Documentary Showcase, interested filmmakers who have worked on at least two documentary full feature films will submit a 5 to 10-minute trailer of the given topics. Four filmmakers will be given a co-production grant of P1 Million to produce a documentary full feature project aligned with the themes of the program.
“People know documentary films based only on what they see on TV. It’s not bad because it’s a form of storytelling. But there are so many other ways for us to appreciate this form. A lot of documentary filmmakers have been championing this in other countries where documentaries are recognized as much as feature films especially in European countries. I think, documentary films are very reliable in terms of giving factual, informative, educational, research based storytelling,” the FDCP chairman shared.
The docus should fall under any of the four categories required by the NHCP: (1) Islam, the Bangsamoro and the quest for peace in Mindanao; (2) 150th Anniversary of Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-2019); (3) World War II in the Philippines; and (4) the feminist movement in the Philippines.
“These documentaries are meant to be used as educational tools for students and teachers. We thought of partnering with FDCP because of their expertise on creating docus. Right now, more students find reading history books boring so we thought of finding ways to be relevant,” NHCP Chief History Researcher Alvin R. Alcid said.
Application for SineSaysay is open until February 2018. For more information and a full list of topics, check out the FDCP social media accounts or send in your questions to info@fdcp.ph.