A copy of the said film was found abroad.
In a Facebook post, film historian Nick Deocampo shared that he was able to find a copy of the pre-war movie ‘Diwata Ng Karagatan,’ which was produced by Jose Nepomuceno, who is hailed as the “Father of Philippine Cinema.”
“A national film treasure has just been found! A copy of Diwata ng Karagatan, long-rumored to be existing but not found, has finally been located at the Belgian film archive,” he wrote.
Deocampo then disclosed that he traveled using his personal money to buy a plane ticket to go to Brussels, Belgium from Berlin, where he linked-up with the daughter of a pioneering Ilonggo-language film director, Louise Baterna, to liaise with the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique in finding the film.
“Happy to announce, the film’s been found,” the film histotian exclaimed.
He continued, “On October 28, we found ourselves watching the only-known existing copy of the vintage movie being played on a Steenbeck editing machine. We were accommodated at the venue by Bruno Mestdagh, coordinator for digital film collection and restoration.”
The known surviving copy of said film exists only in a 35mm print, as there is no digitized copy yet ever since the nitrate original was deposited at the archive by the now-closed Belgian film laboratory CineLabor in 2016.
Deocampo said that the surfacing of the copy is “undeniably historic in many ways,” as it wad produced in 1936 and will soon mark its 90-year anniversary next year.
He then told, “After its first screening that year, it was re-premiered in 1939 to celebrate its successful exhibitions abroad. During the intervening years, the film was exported to France and it also had screenings in Belgium and South America.”
The film, according to him, appeared to be in popular demand in France, where the film was released several times under different titles. The most popular of the titles were ‘Ligaya, fille des îles’ (or ‘Ligaya, Girl of the Island’) and ‘Wong, le Tyran,’ with the latter referring to the film’s evil nemesis.
“Since after its last exhibition at Fox Theater in Manila, nothing has been heard of it until the war broke out in 1941. All movies in Manila disappeared with the war. Thankfully, a copy of the film has now been found abroad,” Deocampo added.
Meanwhile, its discovery is also another historical feat, as this is the first, and perhaps the only, film that is extant that was produced by the Father of Philippine Cinema, Jose Nepomuceno, under his company Parlatone Hispano-Filipino. “Despite rumors of some films attributed to Nepomuceno to be existing, none of his films has ever been found.“
Although, the film is directed by Carlos Vander Tolosa, the same filmmaker who directed the first films to open the Sampaguita and LVN studios in the 1930s.
However, Deocampo noted that the surviving copy of ‘Diwata Ng Karagatan’ is a cut made by a certain Frenchman of possibly longer version, noting that the movie fell victim to piracy in the early days of local cinema.
Hence, Nepomuceno and Tolosa’s names were substituted by French names, further claiming the film to be a musical romance film.
“A French voice-over narration could be heard (no narration in the original), while luckily the Tagalog dialogues have been preserved. Louise Baterna and I found it heartbreaking to find only a long black leader at the end of the film where names of Filipinos once appeared in the closing credits. The ending was all blacked-out while the theme music continued to play. This was evidently a clear case of filmic and cultural erasure,” Deocampo added.
In addition, there were also no credit could also be found of the actors, although the historian identified them to be the young Rogelio de la Rosa as the male lead, while the female lead was played by Mari Velez.
The film has also effectively dislodged the the 1937 Fernando Poe Sr-starrer, ‘Zamboanga,’ as the oldest Filipino pre-World War II movie. Coincidentally, it was also Deocampo who found it abroad while on a Fulbright-funded research scholarship at the Library of Congress in 2004.
He the lamented the lack of effort to find Filipino films in archives abroad, especially that he had used his own money to fund his travel.
“Still, until now, no real effort has been made to find Filipino films abroad. My effort is a personal one driven by my love for Philippine cinema and fueled by my scholarly interest in Filipino film history.”
He added, “Who would be crazy enough to jump on a plane using personal funds to go to Belgium without fully knowing if a copy of the film was there? But the gamble paid off. A national film treasure has been found!“