In our continuing series of stories on Philippine cinema, in celebration of its 100th year, we put the spotlight on this unheralded art director/production designer whose mementos were only recently discovered. Vicente Bonus’ career began in the pre-war era, survived the big studio closures, and even pulled off a classic from the Second Golden Age. So why don’t you know him?
In his eye-opening lecture held at Archivo 1984 last month, film archivist and historian Teddy Co lamented that while we are commemorating 100 Years of Philippine Cinema this year, so many great names who have contributed to it have fallen by the wayside. “We have a very, very poor sense of archiving and also documenting our history, (especially) our Filipino movie history”.
Photo of a young Vicente Bonus, circa 1930s. Photograph courtesy of Lito Bonus