Albert Martinez

Actor Albert Martinez, who also heads the production outfit Cinemabuhay, predicts a busy year ahead in the film industry.

Since its founding five years ago, Cinemabuhay, with the help of the PLDT Smart-Foundation, has been supporting young filmmakers—starting with Bobby Bonifacio’s “Numbalikdiwa” in 2007, Juan Miguel Sevilla’s “Cul de Sac” in 2008 and Rommel Sales’ “Slow Fade” in 2009.

Cinemabuhay’s latest project, “Slow Fade” stars Diether Ocampo and Precious Lara Quigaman and received a P1-million grant from the foundation.

Martinez hopes to push Cinemabuhay’s goals further by partnering with the planned film arm of TV5, ABC Studio.

“We are merging with the network,” he told Inquirer Entertainment in an interview.

Plans are now “on the drawing board,” he said. “We are looking at the concepts. We are doing the numbers. Hopefully, our plans will get approved.”

If it gets green-lit, the merger is envisioned “to take Cinemabuhay to the next level...We are pushing for four films a month...that’s 48 films a year.”

By the end of the year, Martinez hopes to mount an awards show that will celebrate the achievements of the artists and technicians behind the 48 films produced by ABC Studio.

Martinez explained that the company aims to churn out “good quality, exportable Filipino films.”

“We have to look beyond the local market or our industry will die a natural death. We need to come up with concepts that have international appeal. We need to compete with Korea, Japan, Iran in the global arena,” he said.

Dream project

One such dream movie is “Rosario,” a project Martinez has been working on for half a decade.

“It’s about the biggest adultery case in the country in the 1920s,” he said.

By hook or by crook, “Rosario” will push through, he said. “I’ve already devoted five years of my life to this film.”

ABC Studio, he said, is currently involved in co-production deals with established companies like Unitel and Viva. “Hopefully, in the near future, we’ll be producing our own films.”

In the meantime, Cinemabuhay is working closely with new filmmakers like Sales and Paul Sta. Ana who scripted “Slow Fade.”

Quite coincidentally, “Slow Fade” tells the story of a man dying of cancer.

At the same time that he was reading the script, his own wife Liezl Martinez was battling breast cancer.

“My heart is close to this story...I saw in the script everything my wife and I went through,” he recalled.

He related that his wife is now “doing very well. We are now trying to recover what we have lost... emotionally...in the past year. It was devastating for everyone.”

His wife’s illness has “brought them closer. Now we appreciate even small things. We’re no longer too concerned with the future. We are more into the day-to-day.”

He feels “Slow Fade” will help other people coping with similar trials.

“It teaches us to look at life differently. Rather than dwelling on the pain, to convert the negative to positive. That’s the only way to survive. That’s how we did it,” he asserted.