WHEN I ran into her last Independence Day, June 12, 2022, Liza Diño-Seguerra, the chairman of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, was quite insistent that I come to the book launch of the great Filipino film historian Nick Deocampo's thick tome, Alternative Cinema: The Unchronicled History of Alternative Cinema in the Philippines, the fourth volume of his history of cinema in the country. So, I obliged and managed to insert the lunchtime event between the various activities I had scheduled that day, the third of seven.

I thought I would just be a bystander, staying just long enough to buy the book, but someone led me to a seat with my name on it beside the greats of Philippine cinema today, including the great Dik Trofeo, Aureus Solito, Ricky Davao and Mon Confiado. Also in attendance was film historian Teddy Co, Prof. Adjani Arumpac, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, Raymond Red and Khavn de la Cruz, among others. Like them, I would be receiving one of the first copies for free! I was extremely grateful to Liza for making me feel like a million dollars with much honor. Even if I do not look like an actor, my personal involvement in cinema would be as a historical consultant and speaker in some movie tie-in events.

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