Lamberto V. Avellana

Lamberto Vera Avellana (February 12, 1915 – April 25, 1991) was a prominent Filipino film and stage director. Despite considerable budgetary limitations that hampered the post-war Filipino film industry, Avellana's films such as Anak Dalita and Badjao attained international acclaim. In 1976, Avellana was named by President Ferdinand Marcos as the first National Artist of the Philippines for Film. While Avellana remains an important figure in Filipino cinema, his reputation as a film director has since been eclipsed by the next wave of Filipino film directors who emerged in the 1970s, such as Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal.

Life Born in Bontoc, Mountain Province, Avellana was educated at the Ateneo de Manila AB '37, where he developed what turned out to be a lifelong interest in the theater. He taught at the Ateneo after graduation and married his teenage sweetheart Daisy Hontiveros, an actress who eventually also became a National Artist in 1999.

Film career Avellana made his film debut with Sakay in 1939, a biopic on the early 20th-century Filipino revolutionary Macario Sakay. The film, though a box-office flop, was particularly distinguished for its realism, which was atypical of Filipino cinema at the time. The treatment is the subject of some controversy today. Avellana's Sakay toed the line with the American-fostered perception of Sakay as a mere bandit, different from the current-day appreciation of Sakay as a fighter for Filipino independence. Raymond Red's 1993 film, Sakay hews closer to this modern view of Sakay.

Leopoldo Salcedo, who played Sakay in the 1939 Avellana version, portrayed Sakay's father in the 1993 version in his final film role.

Avellana directed more than 70 films in a career that spanned six decades. In the early 1950s, he coined the term "bakya crowd" to describe the mass audiences who went to see his films. Anak Dalita (1956) and Badjao (1957) perhaps stand as the most prominent works from his oeuvre. Anak Dalita, which was named Best Film at the 1956 Asia-Pacific Film Festival, was a realistic portrayal of poverty-stricken Filipinos coping with the aftermath of World War II. Badjao was a love-story set in Mindanao between a man from a sea-dwelling indigenous Badjao family and a woman belonging to a prominent Tausug clan. Rolf Bayer was the screenwriter for both films.

In July 1974, Avellana served as program director for the "Kasaysayan ng Lahi" parade held by President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda Marcos to inaugurate the newly-built Folk Arts Theater (since renamed Tanghalang Francisco Balagtas) weeks prior to the building's use as the venue for Miss Universe 1974. Approximately 22,000 people participated in the parade, which included 50 tribal groups, and was choreographed by Lucrecia Reyes Urtula.

Death Avellana died on April 25, 1991, in Pasig, Philippines, at the age of 76.

Filmography Film As director Year Title Production company Notes 1939 Sakay Filippine Productions 1940 Alitaptap Waling-waling Productions Inday 1941 Rosalinda LVN Pictures Ikaw Pala 1946 Death March Filippine Productions 1947 Haciendera Corazon Roque Productions and Phils. Artist Guild Tandang Sora Sa Ngiti Mo Lamang Eduque Productions The End of the Road Ateneo Alumni Association Hagibis 1948 Pista ng Bayan Nolasco Bros. A La Viva! Philartech Productions Lukso ng Dugo Avellana and Company 1949 Ronquillo: Tiagong Akyat 1950 Hantik Ang Bombero (Kaaway ng Apoy) Prinsipe Amante In Despair 1951 Satur Prinsipe Amante sa Rubitanya LVN Pictures Pag-asa Amor Mio 1952 Korea LVN Pictures Aklat ng Buhay Haring Solomon at Reyna Sheba LVN Pictures 1953 Loida: Ang Aking Pag-ibig Huk sa Bagong Pamumuhay Hiyasmin LVN Pictures 1954 Kandelerong Pilak 1955 Lapu-Lapu Saydwok Bendor 1956 No Money, No Honey Anak Dalita LVN Pictures Medalyong Perlas ("Eskirol" segment) Kumander 13 1957 Walang Sugat Badjao Rosalina 1958 Faithful Sergeant Hassan Malay Film Productions 1959 Kundiman ng Lahi Cry Freedom 1961 Bus to Bataan 1963 Death Was a Stranger Hunters' ROTC Association. No Way Out Tamaraw Productions 1964 Scout Rangers Zultana International 1965 Tagumpay ng Mahirap ("The Boy" segment) Cinema Masters A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino Daudem Pictures and Cinema Artists Operation XYZ Lea Productions 1966 Claudia 1968 Destination: Vietnam Paramount-Philippines Kumander Dimas Regina Productions 1973 Ang Bukas Ay Atin CS Films Productions 1974 Fe, Esperanza, Caridad Premiere Productions co-direc. with Cirio H. Santiago, Gerardo de Leon 1975 Kapitan Kulas: Ang Kilabot ng Sierra Madre Lea Productions Ang Pag-ibig Ko'y Huwag Mong Sukatin 1977 Tadhana: Ito ang Lahing Pilipino National Media Production Center Unreleased film 1978 Manuel L. Quezon: A Man and His Dreams National Media Production Center Short documentary film 1982 Waywaya Four-N Films and Nard Guerrero Films & Associates

As narrator Year Title Production company Notes 1974 Kasaysayan ng Lahi National Media Production Center Also consultant

Accolades