Film & TV

Now on YouTube: Mike de Leon’s ‘Kakabakaba Ka Ba?,’ Restored Films by National Artists

Watch ‘T-Bird At Ako,’ ‘Karnal,’ ‘Ganito Kami Noon… Paano Kayo Ngayon,’ ‘Kakabakaba Ka Ba?,’ and other restored masterpieces by some of the country’s greatest filmmakers

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Actor Christopher de Leon and Charo Santos in Mike De Leon’s film
Screenshot from ABS-CBN Star Cinema YouTube channel

ABS-CBN Film Restoration just added a few new Filipino titles to their online archive of restored films, accessible to the public through the ABS-CBN Star Cinema YouTube channel. Among the latest additions are masterpieces by National Artists for Film Marilou Diaz-Abaya (Karnal (1983)), Eddie Romero (Ganito Kami Noon… Paano Kayo Ngayon (1976)), and Gerry de Leon (Banaue (1975)).

Also in the mix of restored films that can now be streamed on YouTube in high resolution are Mike de Leon’s Kakabakaba Ka Ba? (1980), Mario O’Hara’s Mga Bilanggong Birhen (1977) and Bulaklak Sa City Jail (1984), Laurice Guillen’s Kasal (1980), and Danny Zialcita’s T-Bird At Ako (1982) starring National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Nora Aunor.

Launched in 2011, the ABS-CBN Film Restoration and the Sagip Pelikula initiative aims to archive, preserve, restore, and remaster cinematic works from notable filmmakers and writers. Sagip Pelikula began in earnest some 30 years ago with the creation of the ABS-CBN Film Archives, which holds over 2,000 Filipino films from storied film production studios like LVN Pictures and Sampaguita Pictures, as well as the film archives of renowned Filipino artists Aunor, Dolphy, and Fernando Poe Jr.

Challenges in Film Preservation

Owing to lack of funding, many cinematic classics, including those by National Artists, have succumbed to deterioration before ABS-CBN decided to take on this initiative. Film restoration until the 2010s was relatively unheard of in the country; it is only made possible with the help of external funding from, more often than not, foreign countries, plus the sheer determination of non-profit non-government organizations like the Society of Filipino Film Archivists (SOFIA).

Bringing an old film to its former glory requires scanning film reels, which is the easy part. The painstaking part of restoration includes fixing discoloration, manually restoring missing or burnt frames, and replacing inaudible sounds with crisper ones. All of these processes take a long time to arrive at a restored, higher-resolution copy.

actor nora aunor in banaue film by Gerry de Leon
Screenshot from ABS-CBN Star Cinema YouTube channel

In the case of Banaue, a film about an ethnic group’s search for a home, it took 4,560 hours and 225 restoration artists to fix damages like dust, patches, lens dirt, and other stains. Bulaklak Sa City Jail took 3,000 hours to restore, while Mga Bilanggong Birhen took 550 hours. 
Since its inception, Sagip Pelikula has restored over 200 titles, some have gone on to premier in prestigious international film festivals like Ishmael Bernal’s 1982 classic Himala, the first full-scale film restoration by a Filipino company, ABS-CBN, which was picked up by the Venice Film Festival in 2012.

Christian San Jose Christian San Jose is the Managing Editor of Rolling Stone Philippines, overseeing editorial operations and covering culture and the arts. He was previously the Associate Editor of Nolisoli.ph where h... Read More
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