About SineBuano

SineBuano is an independent filmmaking outfit based in Cebu City, Cebu Philippines.

It is dedicated:

  • To promote the Cebuano/Visayan multi-faceted culture and identity through film;
  • To educate and encourage its members to excel in the various areas of independent; filmmaking;
  • To support the independent efforts of Cebuano and Visayan artists and artisans, and;
  • To cultivate appreciation and assistance of the local public for its endeavors in filmmaking.

Despite its “demise” in the mid-1950s, albeit with sporadic outbursts in the mid-1970s and recent, the Cebuano/Visayan film remains one of the most articulate regional films in the Philippines.

Not only it brought home prestigious awards from international film competitions like the Asian Film Festival; it also offers Manila the Philippines’ film capital, star-studded performers at times when Manila was sorely lacking of big screen attraction.

The death of the Cebuano/Visayan films is not because it fails to carve a following of its own since the entire Visayas and Visayan-speaking Mindanao are still waiting for the next Cebuano/Visayan movie to come.

In the past, Cebuano and Visayan film producers look at film production as a way of re-asserting their presence in the overcrowded social spaces. As the cost of production since— those local producers determine film production here in Visayas no longer cost-effective.

Cebuano/Visayan films also is a victim to its own star system when the stars relocate to Manila. Thus, the regional industry is left in a vacuum, unable to sustain the its previous star status. Thus, the Cebuano/Visayan films has faded away from the limelight.

What needs to be rebuilt, if Cebuano/Visayan films must continue to be sustainable the next time it hit the screens in southern Philippines, is the re-orientation of the business of filmmaking with which it was producing films in the past.

SineBuano is a membership organization set-up to promote independent filmmaking in Cebu and the central Visayan region to revive of the Cebuano/Visayan film industry.

SineBuano believes it can help in the resuscitation of the Cebuano/Visayan film industry by re-crafting both the methods of production and the business plan that go with it.

Sinebuano chooses to embrace independent filmmaking in introducing this revival effort.

Independent filmmaking is a fertile ground to start this revival process. Not only it is not required to adhere to the redundant formulas of mainstream cinema; it is more venturesome in its selection of stories to tell and in the manner which it will tell those stories. It is a matter of choice that independent filmmaking offers a lot more space in exploring how Cebuano/Visayans can share unique stories of their hearts, their region and their culture.

SineBuano aims to entice the larger public to support Cebuano/Visayan filmmaking efforts with the current accessibility of digital tools in filmmaking and matched with the committed interest in the art of filmmaking, before proceeding to venture into the business of Cebuano/Visayan film industry.

For further information and inquiries, contact SineBuano through sinebuano@yahoo.com