Philippine Film Heritage Faces an Urgent Preservation Crisis

 

The Philippines is confronting a cultural preservation problem that can no longer be treated as the concern of film specialists alone. Thousands of films that once documented the country’s people, values, struggles and triumphs have already vanished, while much of what remains is still vulnerable to deterioration, technological obsolescence and inadequate archival capacity.

That warning emerged prominently during the ASEAN Film and Television Summit held Aug. 13 at Seda Manila Bay, an event organized by the Film Development Council of the Philippines under the leadership of chairperson Jose Javier Reyes. First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos attended as guest of honor, while Congressman Javi Benitez of Negros Occidental’s Third District, who chairs the Special Committee on Creative Industries, delivered the opening remarks.

Under the theme Navigating Our Future, Together, the summit examined major issues confronting Asia’s film and television sectors, including the preservation of the region’s cinematic heritage.

Thousands of Philippine Films Have Already Disappeared

Among the summit’s most consequential discussions was the Asian Film Archiving Forum, which brought attention to the condition of film preservation across Asia and explored strategies for protecting audiovisual materials for future generations.

The scale of the Philippine problem is particularly troubling.

The country produced more than 8,000 films on film stock between 1919 and 2012. Only around half are believed to survive in any form. Of those surviving works, approximately 2,000 remain in print, whether complete or incomplete. Most surviving materials come from the 1980s onward.

The situation becomes considerably more alarming when the country’s prewar cinema is examined. Only five titles from the period before World War II are known to survive: Adarna, Giliw, Zamboanga, Tunay na Ina and Pakiusap. The latter exists only through a video copy.

These figures illustrate that film preservation is not simply a matter of maintaining old reels in storage. It is a race against time. Once the original material deteriorates beyond recovery, an entire chapter of national history can disappear with it.

Archives Preserve More Than Movies

The forum’s first session, The Future of Asian Film Archives, featured Chalida Uabumrungjit of the Thai Film Foundation, Sopheap Chea of Cambodia’s Bophana Center, Julita Pratiwi of the Indonesian Film Board and Leo Katigbak, a veteran of ABS-CBN’s film restoration initiatives and the Sagip Pelikula advocacy.

Katigbak, who led ABS-CBN’s restoration efforts from 2011 to 2025 and now serves as a consultant to the FDCP and the Philippine Film Archives, underscored the depth of the country’s archival crisis.

Film archives function much like a nation’s collective memory. They preserve not only entertainment but also language, fashion, social customs, political realities, artistic movements and the everyday experiences of people from different periods.

A film made decades ago can therefore serve as a visual document of an era in ways that written records sometimes cannot.

For the Philippines, cinema offers an especially valuable record of how the country understood itself across generations.

Funding and Infrastructure Remain Major Obstacles

Much of the preservation work in the Philippines continues to come from private organizations, although the Philippine Film Archive is expanding its efforts.

The fundamental challenge is capacity.

Older films require increasingly specialized and expensive restoration procedures. Many works produced before 1970 are already considered highly vulnerable, while numerous films from the 1970s and 1980s are also facing deterioration.

Even when endangered films are identified, archival institutions face another problem: there is not enough suitable space to accommodate every material that needs to be preserved.

This creates a difficult cycle. Identifying a deteriorating film is only the beginning. The material must then be acquired or secured, assessed, restored when possible, stored under appropriate conditions and eventually migrated to new formats as technology changes.

Preservation, in other words, is not a one-time project. It requires a sustained commitment.

Technology Creates Another Layer of Risk

Digitization has transformed access to old films, but it has not eliminated the preservation problem.

Archival materials depend on equipment and formats that eventually become obsolete. As machines capable of reading older formats disappear from the market, archives must continually migrate materials into newer systems.

That process requires expertise, equipment and funding.

Simply transferring a film into a digital file does not mean the preservation process is finished. Digital materials themselves must be managed and migrated over time to ensure they remain accessible.

The technical challenge is therefore comparable to maintaining an old library in which the shelves, lighting, cataloging system and even the language of the books are constantly changing. Preservation requires continuous stewardship rather than a single intervention.

Restored Classics Can Find New Audiences

There is, however, reason for optimism.

The renewed public interest in restored films demonstrates that older cinema can still connect with contemporary audiences when it is presented in accessible and visually appealing formats.

Restoration projects have helped introduce classic Philippine films to viewers who may otherwise never have encountered them. Improved picture quality, stronger contrast and modern presentation can make older productions feel relevant to audiences accustomed to contemporary screens.

Digital platforms have also expanded the potential reach of restored works.

Accessibility is crucial. A film cannot meaningfully contribute to cultural education if it remains locked away in an inaccessible archive. Preservation and public exhibition must therefore advance together.

The Responsibility Cannot Rest on One Institution

The preservation of Philippine cinema requires cooperation between government agencies, private companies, archives, educational institutions, filmmakers, academics and audiences.

Private organizations have played a significant role, but long-term investment can be difficult without stronger incentives and institutional support. Concerns surrounding taxation, copyright, piracy and the commercial viability of restoration can discourage potential participants.

Government support, meanwhile, can provide the stability necessary for projects that may take years to complete and may not immediately generate financial returns.

Education should form part of that strategy.

The country’s film heritage deserves greater attention in schools and universities because students cannot fully study Philippine cinema if the films themselves are unavailable. Film literacy is strengthened when learners can actually see the works that shaped the country’s cinematic tradition.

Film Is a Record of the Filipino Experience

The larger issue extends beyond entertainment.

Philippine cinema has documented changing attitudes, social conditions, aspirations and conflicts across more than a century. Films can reveal how Filipinos dressed, spoke, interacted, dreamed and understood their place in society.

Some productions may ultimately become the only surviving audiovisual evidence of particular periods or communities.

That makes preservation a matter of cultural continuity.

The ASEAN Film and Television Summit demonstrated why regional cooperation is becoming increasingly important. The Asian Film Alliance Network, established by national film bodies across Asia, seeks to strengthen collaboration, information exchange and the preservation and celebration of the region’s film heritage and industries. Its current members are Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea and Japan, with the Philippines currently serving as host.

For the Philippines, the message is unmistakable. The country has already lost thousands of films. Allowing more to disappear would mean surrendering pieces of its own historical record.

Every restored reel, preserved print and properly maintained digital copy keeps a fragment of that history alive. The objective is not merely to save old movies from physical decay. It is to ensure that future Filipinos can still encounter the people, stories and ideas that shaped the nation on screen.