ILOILO CITY – The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) awarded an internationally acclaimed film on the Panay Bukidnon indigenous people.
THE film ‘Paglupad Ka Banog’ (The Flight of Banog) by director Elvert Bañares is one of the awardees of the 15th Ani ng Dangal. The film on the Panay Bukidnon indigenous people won one of the top prizes in a film festival in Malaysia. (Paul Sugano for NCCA/Myish Endonila)
“Paglupad Ka Banog” (The Flight of Banog) by director Elvert Bañares was one of the 11 recipients for cinema of the 15th Ani ng Dangal (Harvest of Honors).
The NCCA awarded the film for winning the top prize for Best Indigenous Language Film at the 13th Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival in Malaysia recently.
“The Panay Bukidnon indigenous people and their story were honored,” said Bañares after receiving the award recently in Malacañang.
“This victory is ours. Iya kang Panay Bukidnon kag tanan nga mga Ilonggo (This victory is ours. Of the Panay Bukidnon and all Ilonggos),” Bañares told the Manila Bulletin.
The film depicts a section of the “Hinilawod,” the pre-colonial oral literature of the Panay Bukidnon that is believed to be one of the world’s longest epics.
The film specifically centers on an elderly father imparting to his youngest son how the protagonist Humadapnon was saved by the ‘’banog’’ (Visayan hawk). This leads the Panay Bukidnon in celebrating the triumph of love and family with the binanog dance.
Bañares made sure that the Panay Bukidnon from Calinog town, Iloilo province would have direct participation in the film with 95 percent of the cast and crew involved.
Included were cultural master Romulo Caballero and Jesus Catigan Insilada, who wrote the screenplay.