Lamberto Vera Avellana

Born in February 12 1915

Lamberto Avellana y Vera was born in Bontoc in the Mountain Province on 12 February 1915. He
studied at Ateneo de Manila, where he learned about his passion and talent for the theater arts. He
became a teacher at Ateneo, and aspired to promote Filipino theater.
He met Daisy Hontiveros who acted in plays staged by the University of the Philippines. Hontiveros
and Avellana formed a theater arts group called the Barangay Theater Guild, which has had
members such as Leon Ma. Guerrero III and Raul Manglapus.
Upon watching one of Avellana's theater productions, President Carlos P. Garcia suggested that he
look into filmmaking.
In 1939, Avellana made his directorial debut with Sakay, which depicted the life story of the Filipino
hero Macario Sakay.
As a filmmaker, Avellana proved that he was an innovator. He developed a style wherein the camera
was used to represent a point-of-view.
Avellana worked in the Philippine movie industry for 60 years, completing over 70 movies. His two
most noted films are Badjao, which portrayed the indigenous seafaring people of Mindanao, and
Anak Dalita (Child of Indigence), about the struggles of life after World War II. The movie won
Avellana the award for Best Film at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival in 1956.
Avellana was also the first Filipino director to have his film screened at the Cannes film festival. The
movie was entitled Kandelerong Pilak (Silver Candlesticks), starring Miniong Alvarez, Teody
Belarmino, Alfonso Carvajal, Joseph de Cordova, Lilia Dizon, and Joseph Estrada.
Avellana was proclaimed National Artist for Theater and Film in 1976 by President Ferdinand
Marcos. He married Daisy Hontiveros, whom Avellana has known since they were teenagers, and
who was also a National Artist.
Avellana passed away on 25 April 1991.

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. 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.

Filmography
● Sakay (1939)
● Inday (1940)
● Rosalinda (1941)
● Ikaw Pala (1941)
● Death March (1946)
● Hacendera (1947)
● Tandang Sora (1947)
● Sa Ngiti Mo Lamang (1947)
● Hagibis (1947)
● Pista ng Bayan (1948)
● A La Viva! (1948)
● Ronquillo: Tiagong Akyat (1949)
● Hantik (1950)
● Ang Bombero (Kaaway ng Apoy) (1950)
● Prinsipe Amante (1950)
● In Despair (1950)
● Satur (1951)
● Prinsipe Amante sa Rubitanya (1951)
● Pag-asa (1951)
● Amor Mio (1951)
● Korea (1952)
● Aklat ng Buhay (1952)
 ● Haring Solomon at Reyna Sheba (1952)
● Loida: Ang Aking Pag-ibig (1953)
● Huk sa Bagong Pamumuhay (1953)
● Hiyasmin (1953)
● Kandelerong Pilak (1954)
● Lapu-Lapu (1955)
● Saydwok Bendor (1955)
● No Money, No Honey (1956)
● Anak Dalita (1956)
● Medalyong Perlas ("Eskirol" segment, 1956)
● Kumander 13 (1956)
● Walang Sugat (1957)
● Badjao (1957)
● Sergeant Hassan (1957)
● Rosalina (1957)
● Faithful (1958)
● Kundiman ng Lahi (1959)
● Cry Freedom (1959)
● Bus to Bataan (1961)
● Death Was a Stranger (1963)
● No Way Out (1963)
● Scout Rangers (1964)
● A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1965)
● Tagumpay ng Mahirap ("The Boy" segment, 1965)
● Operation XYZ (1966)
● Claudia (1966)
● Destination: Vietnam (1968)
● Kumander Dimas (1968)
● Ang Bukas Ay Atin (1973)
● Fe, Esperanza, Caridad (with Cirio H. Santiago and Gerardo de León, 1974)
● Kapitan Kulas: Ang Kilabot ng Sierra Madre (1975)
● Ang Pag-ibig Ko'y Huwag Mong Sukatin (1975)
● Waywaya (1982)

Awards
● 1956 APFF (Asia Pacific Film Festival)in Anak Dalita
● 2 Conde de Foxa Award (1959 and 1961)
● 2 FAMAS award(1954 and 1965)
● 1981 Lifetime Achievement award
● 1991 Posthumous Award (MMFF)