JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos, written and directed by Mario O’Hara

In 2011 Cinema One Originals paid tribute to Mario O’Hara. This is the citation we wrote for the event.

Mario O’Hara should be one of the best-known filmmakers of our time. His name should be mentioned alongside Brocka’s and Bernal’s. The fact that it is not is an injustice partly of his own making. For Mario O’Hara hides from the spotlight as if it would burn him.

His movies travel to film festivals; he does not. They win accolades and prizes; he does not receive them personally. Film critics and students seek to interview him; he shyly but firmly declines. It is almost as if he were trying to erase himself from the frame.

Fortunately his work speaks for him, loudly and clearly. As an actor he is unforgettable: witness his performances in Tubog Sa Ginto, Stardoom, Tinimbang Ka Nguni’t Kulang, and Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag. His filmography as a writer includes some of the most important films from Philippine Cinema’s Golden Age: Tinimbang Ka Nguni’t Kulang, Condemned, Insiang. His achievements as writer and director are indelible: Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos, Ang Babae Sa Breakwater, Ang Paglilitis Ni Andres Bonifacio.

In 1976 the film Insiang directed by Lino Brocka from a story and screenplay by Mario O’Hara, became the first Filipino film to screen at Cannes. In 2003, after an absence of two decades, Filipino film returned to the Cannes film festival. The movie was Ang Babae Sa Breakwater, written and directed by Mario O’Hara. This low-budget independent film was one of the pioneers leading the charge of Philippine cinema on the international festival circuit. Today Philippine movies are a fixture at Cannes, Venice, and other festivals. This would not have been possible without the groundbreaking work of this quiet, self-effacing man.

Of course Mario O’Hara would never admit that, so we will say it.