Pureza: Dissecting the Negros Sugar Industry

Pureza: The Story of Negros Sugar is a full-length documentary film dissecting the sugar industry and how it has affected the lives of almost 3 million people in Negros island.

Sugar is the oil that runs the economy of Negros. Negros Occidental alone produces more than half of the total sugar production of the Philippines. Despite the efforts from various sectors to veer away from a monocrop industry,  Negros remained dependent on the sugar industry.

Sugar has been part of the turbulent history of the island where social unrest has been the cause of insurgency in the past. I’m sure most of us has some stereotypical image of the proverbial hacendero (landowner) throwing lavish parties in their palatial mansions while their sacadas toil in the fields. That has been the stigma that Negrenses have to live with for for more than a century.

A lot has been said and written about the Negros sugar industry but perhaps none has taken a bolder attempt to tell the story than filmmaker Jay Abello who himself was a sugarcane planter. Cramming more than 300 hours of footage into  1 hour and 50 minutes can be a daunting task even to a seasoned filmmaker such as Abello thus it took his team 3 years to finalize the film.

Pureza refers to the purity of the sugar yield and depends on the different stages in the value chain, from planting to harvesting to milling. It’s an apt title for a documentary which delves  deeper into the historical, cultural and economic aspects of the sugar industry. It looks into the industry not only from the point of view of somebody born into it but also from somebody looking from the outside.

The production team were mostly Negrenses/Ilonggo by birth and affinity thus everybody had their own personal story with the sugar industry making the project very personal. Chroma Key technology was used for the Pureza cosplay where they used hundreds of costumes in recreating period scenes retracing the history of sugar in Negros. Animation was also used using the works of Negrense artist Edbon Sevilleno.

The film was produced by Bonfire Productions and Negros Pureza Foundation with support from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Although you can say this documentary is mostly funded by hacendero money, Director Abello made sure there will be no “sugar coating”.

Here are the production team which made “Pureza: The Story of Negros Sugar”

Executive Producers J. ABELLO, JOEY GASTON
Producers FIONA BORRES, AGNES VILLAR
Director J. ABELLO
Writers JET ORBIDA, CHECCS OSMEÑA
Editor FIONA BORRES
Director of Photography J. ABELLO
Asst. Director LOVELLE BELLOCILLO
Visual FX Supervisor RICHARD FRANCIA
Sound Engineers ALBERT MICHAEL IDIOMA, ALEX TOMBOC
Music PEARLSHA ABUBAKAR
Researchers IHVONIE SEVILLENO, KAT VALENCIA

Cosplay Actors

Oying Osmeña
Milton Dionzon
Mandy Alimon
Eero Martinez
Dante Amaguin

Pureza: The Story of Negros Sugar will be shown on the following dates and venues:

February 7 –  Premiere at SM City Bacolod Cinema 3, Screenings at 6:30pm and 9:00pm – (by invitation only)
February 11 – Robinsons Place Bacolod as part of the Bacollywood: Cinema Rehiyon 2012. Free Screening at 6:00-8:00pm. For Free Tickets, contact the  secretariat at 09162173010.
February 17 – Regular screening at SM City Bacolod (Regular Screenings at 12:00nn, 2:00pm, 4:00pm) Tickets are available at P120.00 at Café Uma (709-9966) or contact 0932-3065277 | 0917-3012878 | 034-708607

Watch the full trailer below: