2000 Gawad Alab ng Haraya Awardee

(Alab ng Haraya Awards)

To say Pelikula, the journal, began merely as a response to what some have described as the deplorable condition of Philippine cinema is to oversimplify the circumstances that brought it into being.

The truth is, Pelikula, a project of the Laurel-Rufino-Prieto Foundation, Inc. (LRFPI), appears to exist not so much to censure the blatant commercialism characteristic of a number of current Filipino movies as to scrutinize, to probe into the constituent elements of a film. It examines the various threads that form the woof and warp of a film, whether its treatment be realistic, comic, melodramatic or fantastic. Taking a historical approach, it explores the roots of some of the more common representations in cinema.

To illustrate, it delves into the history of the portrayal of women in film, identifying certain archetypes that have prevailed through the years: the long-suffering wife; the scheming other woman; and the untouchable goddess. Only in recent works, it notes, have these patriarchal perceptions been diminished and replaced by depictions of women as independent, strong-willed persons, and not as stereotypes, an indication that, perhaps, there is hope for Philippine cinema after all.

Gawad Alab ng Haraya at Dangal ng Haraya Guidelines