Arts & Entertainment

An Iconic Gem of Philippine Cinema Was Thought to Be Lost. An Illinois Professor Helped Get the Film Restored

When José Capino was a child in the Philippines in the early 1980s, he watched a movie called “Bona” for the first time on television while at his grandparents’ house on Christmas Day.

“We watched the film from beginning to end,” Capino said, laughing as he recalled the memory. “We were all in rapt attention. Considering it was Christmas Day and there’s a lot of food, everyone would refill their plate and go back to the same spot and watch this film.”

Directed by internationally acclaimed Filipino director Lino Brocka, “Bona” received a positive reception at the time of its release in 1980. The following year, the movie was also screened at the Cannes International Film Festival.

But, until recently, the whereabouts of the movie’s original film negatives were largely unknown.

It wasn’t until Capino, now a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was doing research for his book, “Martial Law Melodrama: Lino Brocka’s Cinema Politics,” that he was able to help track down the location of the widely unseen film, ultimately leading to its restoration.

“It brought tears of joy,” Capino said about rediscovering “Bona,” which was his first introduction to Brocka's films.

“Bona” made its return to the Cannes Film Festival last year with a 4K restoration screening, courtesy of Kani Releasing and Carlotta Films. Now, amid a theatrical run, the restoration will be making its Chicago premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center next week.

A still from Filipino director Lino Brocka’s film “Bona,” released in 1980, featuring Nora Aunor as Bona and Phillip Salvador as Gardo. A new 4K restoration of the film will make its Chicago premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center this month. (Courtesy of Kani Releasing / Nora Aunor)

Brocka is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated filmmakers in Philippine cinema. An outspoken critic of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Brocka did not shy away from depicting poverty, sexuality, queerness and antigovernment themes in landmark films like “Manila in the Claws of Light” (1975) and “Insiang” (1976).

The Gene Siskel Film Center was a supporter of Brocka and his films while he was still alive, according to Capino. Under former longtime programming director Barbara Scharres, the Film Center showed several of Brocka’s films during a time when Brocka was going up against the Marcos regime, which ruled under martial law from 1972 to 1981. 

Book cover of José Capino’s “Martial Law Melodrama: Lino Brocka’s Cinema Politics,” released in 2020. Published by the University of California Press.

“The Marcos regime did find a way to put Brocka to jail to sort of scare him — that was for a short period of time — so there were considerable risks involved in defying the Marcos administration, which includes having your film banned or having it butchered by censors,” Capino said.

In 2017, while doing research for his book, Capino was traveling around Europe in search of an uncensored version of “Bona.” Due to censorship concerns and export permit requirements in the Philippines, Capino said, Brocka and his collaborators would smuggle his films to Europe, where some of Brocka’s film prints have since been rediscovered.

It was during an interview with Pierre Rissient, who worked with Brocka and was an advocate for Asian films at the Cannes Film Festival, that Capino learned the original film negatives of “Bona” were in a film archive in France from when they were brought in for Cannes and when it was picked up for European distribution. “Bona” did not have to be smuggled out at the time, Capino noted, likely given the popularity of its lead actress Nora Aunor and the film not being as overtly political. 

Through the interview with Rissient, Capino was also able to help locate another one of Brocka’s films, “Jaguar” (1979), which has since been restored by the Film Development Council of the Philippines. Rissient passed away just a few months after the interview.

Capino said he wept when he learned through Rissient that the film negatives, which were thought to be lost, still existed. “I tried to safeguard that information,” Capino said. “These films were in danger of getting auctioned off to a bidder who might demand a humongous ransom for them.”

It was years later that Capino said he suggested “Bona” to the small film distributor Kani Releasing, which focuses on releasing classic and contemporary Asian films. The team behind Kani Releasing was then able to locate the film and commit to its restoration in collaboration with film distributor Carlotta Films.

Filipino director Lino Brocka. (Courtesy of Kani Releasing)

While “Bona” was directed by a man, Capino describes the film as a “female-centered production” with the film being written by Cenen Ramones, its lead actress Aunor also serving as a producer and the film’s themes of female sexuality.

“Bona” stars Aunor as the titular role of teenage Bona, who drops out of school and breaks with her family to pursue her infatuation with a bit-part actor Gardo, played by Phillip Salvador.

The movie will serve as a special point of pride for Filipinos and Filipino Americans seeing it on the big screen, according to Capino. But beyond that, Capino said, it’s Brocka’s filmmaking and the sense of humanity and empathy that shine through in his work.

“You see a glance or look from one of his actors, it’s just so powerful,” Capino said about what makes Brocka’s films so enduring. “It pierces your heart. It is magnificently beautiful, even in its grittiness, in the squalor that you see around these characters. He just had an unfailing instinct with regards to capturing a fragment of reality or human emotion in its raw power.”

A new 4K restoration of Lino Brocka’s “Bona” will make its Chicago premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center on April 21. The screening will include a special introduction by José Capino.

Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]

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