Actor’s Hiligaynon immersion key to ‘Candè’ success

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

Ilonggo film director Kevin Pison Piamonte said on Friday, Sept. 26, that lead actor JC Santos’ efforts to learn and use Hiligaynon were crucial to the success of their film Candè.

The film, which had its regular screening in Iloilo City last February, is now reaching a wider audience in Metro Manila and Rizal as one of the finalists of the Sinag Maynila Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30.

Santos portrays Timothy, a Filipino chef who returns to Iloilo City from New York after two decades to bury a childhood friend, with the Feast of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria—Jaro district’s patroness—serving as a major backdrop.

Piamonte told Daily Guardian on Air that Santos took the initiative to learn Hiligaynon with the help of a dialect coach and immersed himself in a set where Tagalog was not allowed.

“Since JC [Santos] really loved the story of Candè, he really committed to learn the language,” Piamonte said.

“We were lucky because we had a very good dialogue coach, Nate Sotto, who really focused on JC.”

“On set, JC also instructed that everyone should be speaking in Hiligaynon and no one should be speaking in Tagalog, so that his ears would be trained,” he added.

Piamonte said Santos’ performance paid off, noting that many Ilonggos believed he was a native speaker.

“For me, it’s a triumph,” the director said.

“I remember that we had a discussion at the UP Film Institute in Diliman—what makes a regional film regional? One, that is language, and then the other factor is that [the actor] needs to deliver the language well.”

“We have to be mindful of the audience who are bearers of the language,” he added.

Piamonte also credited the authenticity of the rest of the cast, who are all native speakers from Panay, as an advantage in enriching the film’s narrative.

“If the actor is the bearer of the language, they can deepen their character, because they can understand the language,” he said.

“For us in Iloilo, upon birth, we learn the [Hiligaynon] language, right? Then the nuances of the language become part of our system already, so it would be easy to deliver the language, and so naturally, their acting comes along with it.”

The director, known for his Hiligaynon-language films, emphasized that language plays a central role in regional filmmaking and cultural preservation.

“Number one for me is respecting the language,” Piamonte said.

“Language is part of film culture, and film promotes culture—and part of that is language.”

“I’ve seen films in the past that cast mainstream actors, and when you watch them in the cinema, your skin hardens because you know they’re not speaking [the language] properly, and suddenly they insert that they’re not from here,” he added.

Piamonte also encouraged local filmmakers to take the initiative in screening their films wherever possible.

He highlighted venues such as the Cinematheque at the University of the Philippines Visayas and the Film Development Council of the Philippines on Solis Street in Iloilo City.

He cited the Bantayan Film Festival in Guimbal, which screens films annually at the town plaza, and one of his documentaries being shown on a gas station wall in Angono, Rizal.

“Our filmmakers should make efforts to show their films there,” he said.

“I believe that people still want to watch movies, even if the biggest rival is online streaming.”

“There are people who still believe that it feels different sitting in a dark room watching a larger-than-life screen,” he added.