SCREENING:
Saturday, June 8, 2013, 6 to 8 pm
 

“P U R E Z A : The Story of Negros Sugar”

 There can never be a more controversial and important film in Negros history than PUREZA. This full length documentary-film aims to tell the ONE story that is vital to the history and the future of the Negrense people and their culture, the story of sugar. 

 

When one hears of the Island of Negros, there are two things that come to mind – sugarcane fields and sugar-based delicious food. Certainly, Negros is a province of sugar and sweets.

From the 50’s-70’s, the Negros sugar industry was the highest wage-paying industry in Asia’s largest sugar producer, the Philippines.  The “Sugar Bowl of the Philippines” represented affluence and material abundance with the image of the swaggering haciendero representing the face of Negros.

In 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law, throwing the country into political and social turmoil.  In 1974, the U.S. Sugar Act and the Laurel-Langley Agreement expired, throwing the country into the competitive free market.

Marcos created the National Sugar Trading Corporation whose most controversial policy was to dictate a single fixed sugar rate.  NASUTRA allegedly ripped off planters by paying them a paltry average of 50% of their dues.

Reeling from low world prices, bank debts via crop loans and problems with insurgency, planters barely managed to plant their fields.

The image of the swaggering haciendero changed face into the gaunt photograph of the starving “Batang Negros (Child of Negros).”  The planter was depicted as the abusive landlord, holding his farm workers in virtual servitude and their children into hunger.

In 1986, Marcos was exiled from his homeland.  The NASUTRA was demolished. As the country entered a new democracy, Negros awaited the resurgence of its sugar industry.  But sugar leaders took on differing views and created a gaping factionalism. Larger organizations broke into splinter groups, creating disunity.  They filed court cases against NASUTRA and other agencies for defrauding the sugar industry but until today, no court case has been decided on.

Today, the sugar industry is beset with stiff competition from other sugar-producing countries, most notably Thailand. It is also in constant threat by new crimes like the smuggling of imported sugar.

In 2015, the Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) tariff on imported goods will be abolished, paving the way for the entry of cheap imported sugar.

Questions have been raised by concerned parties in the Negros sugar arena which the docu-film hopes to shed light on:

Why is the industry still in peril, even after the Marcos era?  What events in the local scene and the global market led to the fall of the industry?  And what is the real story of the sakadas?

Jay Abello - Filmography (1999-2012) 

2012
Cinematographer, My Lady Boss
GMA Films, Jade Castro - Director
Cinematographer, Someday (working title) (Paris/Amsterdam shoot)
Cinemedia/Star Cinema, Manny Palo - Director
Cinematographer, Aparisyon
Vince Sandoval-- Director
Cinematographer, Caesar (working title only, 2011, in production) Full Feature Documentary—
Joanna Arong-Director
Director/Cinematographer/Producer, Pureza (2009-2012) Full Feature Documentary
Negros Pureza Foundation, Inc. and Bonfire Productions, Inc.

2011
Cinematographer, Tahanan
Krizzie Syfu-Director/Producer
Director/Cinematographer, Indie, Mainstrean, Paano ka Ginawa? (Full Feature Documentary for TV)
Arkeo Films, Seventh Films
Associate Director,  The Road (2011) 
GMA Films, Yam Laranas-- Director
Co-Cinematographer with Lee Meily, Nino
Cinemalaya 2011 Finalist, Loi Arcenas—Director

2010
Cinematographer, Kano: the American and his Harem 
Full Feature Documentary
Arkeo Films, Coreen Jimenez-- Director
Cinematographer, Donor
Spark Films, Inc., Mark Meily-- Director
Cinematographer, Music Sense Short Film
Krizzie Syfu –Director/Producer

>2009
Associate Director, Patient X 
GMA Films and Viva Films, Yam Laranas—Director

2008
Cinematographer, Padyak  
Breaking the Box Productions, Aloy Adlawan—Director
Additional Photography(Cinematography), Baler 
GMA Films and Viva Films,  Mark Meily-- Director
Director/Producer/Associate Cinematographer,  Namets! (Yummy)
Bonfire Productions, Inc; Cinemalaya 2008 Finalist
Cinematographer, Brutus
Bonfire Productions, Inc; Cinemalaya 2008 Finalist,
Tara Illenberger-- Director

2007
Director/Producer/Additional Photography, Ligaw Liham
7th Films/Produksyon Tramontina, Cinemalaya 2007 Finalist

2005
1st Assistant Director, Nasaan Na Si Francis? Unitel Pictures, Gabby Fernandez-- Director 2004
2nd Unit Cinematography, La Visa Loca
Unitel Pictures, Mark Meily-- Director
Stills Photographerfor Documentation, Pinoy Blonde
Unitel Pictures, Peque Gallaga--Director
1st Assistant Director, Sigaw
Megavision Films, Yam Laranas--Director
1st Assistant Director, Santa Santita 
Unitel Pictures, Laurice Guillen--Director

2001
Writer, Commissioned Original Screenplay, Ang Babaeng Walang Pangalan  
Viva Films, to be Directed by Erik Matti

Original Screenplay/ 1st Assitant Director/Writer, Dos Ekis Viva Films, Erik Matti – Director Writer -  Original Screenplay/ 1st Assistant Director,  Sa Huling Paghihintay
Viva Films, Erik Matti – Director

2000
Story, Balahibong Pusa Viva Films, Yam Laranas – Director
1st Assitant Director, Pedro Penduko: Episode II 
Viva Films, Erik Matti – Director

1999
Property Master, Ekis
Viva Films, Erik Matti – Director