If you are not a passionate SB19 fan, you may not be aware that the country’s unarguably no. 1 P-pop band is poised to manifest its potency in the cinema box office starting 28 August. That’s the day the SB19 documentary about their “Pagtatag World Tour” last year opens in theaters nationwide.

But then, for reasons unexplained by SB19 members themselves, the film’s showing is described as “limited engagement” because it is only for five days, or only up to 1 September. An extension may or may not be possible. (The band has been managing itself under the leadership of Pablo whose legal name is John Paulo Nase. Their company name is 1Z Entertainment.)

There’s actually an invitational premiere night screening for the docu film on 25 August at Cineplex Gateway 2. If it’s invitational, that should mean no tickets to the screening were sold at the box-office, or will be sold on the night of the premiere.

It looks like Pinoy moviegoers are beginning to expand their taste into watching documentaries. Opening in the movie houses on Wednesday, 21 August, is And So It Begins, a documentary on the presidential campaign of ex-Vice President Leni Robredo, directed by Ramona Diaz, who is well known for her 2003 documentary on former First Lady Imelda Marcos simply titled Imelda. 

Do take note that Pagtatag and And So It Begins are showing not as part of any film festival. They are showing on regular screening days

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The recently concluded Cinemalaya had as one of the 10 entries the docu “Alipato at Muog,” a heartbreaking narrative about the forcible disappearance in 2007 of labor leader Jonas Burgos, son of the late militant newsman and broadsheet publisher-editor Jose “Joe” Burgos. 

The docu was helmed by first-time director J.L. Burgos, a younger brother of Jonas. It was awarded a Special Jury Prize for “its effective use of the resources of documentary cinema to shed light on an actual case of enforced disappearance” of his older brother.

The forthcoming Sinag Maynila Film Festival on 4 to 8 September has a documentary division with seven entries. One entry is about a knife popular in the Philippines as “veintenueve” (Spanish for 29) or “balisong” made mostly in a village in Batangas province that was eventually named after the peculiar dagger that swings out from its hinged double sheaths. 

In the US, that metal dagger is known as “butterfly knife” or “fan knife,” and one American who owns a collection of such knives is Angelina Jollie. The docu might carry the demo of Jolie on how she deftly handles knife. Jolie did it in a guesting stint in the late-night talk show hosted by Conan O’Brien.

The docu’s title is Way of the Balisong. The other titles are Untitled/Unfinished, Panatag (Tranquil), Pag-ibig ang Mananaig (Love Will Prevail, Natatanging Palayok (Exceptional Pot), Ghosts of Kalantiaw and Ino, which is about a boy who is a balut vendor.

Some of the docu entries have been screened in international festivals in various years. They are premiering in the Philippines through the Sinag Maynila Film Festival.

Several film festivals in the Philippines have long been accepting one or documentaries in their line-up of entries. The box-office performances of documentaries seem to discourage them from accepting more. Thus, makers of documentaries seem to prefer to send their outputs first to foreign film festivals that are more receptive to non-fiction films. Once their docus have been screened in outside festivals, they feel the local festivals become more receptive to their creations. 

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Meanwhile, the SB19 documentary on the “Pagtatag World Tour” is helmed by Jed Regala and produced by 1Z Entertainment and First Light Studios. “Pagtatag” is a Tagalog word that can be variously translated to English as “founding,” “establishing,” or “organizing.*

Composed of Pablo, Stell, Ken, Justin and Josh, SB19 debuted in 2018 and is known for the songs “GENTO,” “Mapa” and “Bazinga.” They rarely use their family names in their project credits and even their showbiz monickers are just made up. A wag of a psychologist once told us that the boys have been “quietly, safely” going through their own identity crises. The wag said that the boys handle their individual identity crisis well through artistic sublimation.

On the other hand, the “Pagtatag! World Tour” was the second pulled off by SB19 to support their second extended play album, Pagtatag! (2023). The world tour was comprised of 18 shows that kicked off on 24 June 2023, in Quezon City, and stopped by in the United States, Canada, and Japan. They ended their “Pagtatag!” era with back-to-back concerts at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in May 2024.

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Meanwhile, what other movies are showing starting 28 August? Ayala Malls is actually screening a spooky line-up of Hollywood-classics this traditional Ghost month. 

Ayala Malls theaters will release The Towering Inferno from 28 August to 3 September. The film is on its 50th anniversary (released in 1974), starring Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway and Fred Astaire.

Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) is the architect who designed the 138-story Glass Tower, the tallest building in the world. But during the dedication ceremony for the skyscraper, an electrical short circuit starts a fire. San Francisco Fire Department chief Michael O’Hallorhan (Steve McQueen) arrives on the scene to help put out the fires, but with inadequate wiring that causes more fires and the building being too high for such an emergency, will the people at the Tower survive? Directed by John Guillermin (known for another Hollywood classic King Kong), The Towering Inferno won three Academy Awards. 

First released 40 years ago in 1984, ightmare on Elm Street stars Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, and John Saxon.

It’s about the return of a murdered man as a hideously scarred monster in the terrifying nightmares of his killers’ children who, one by one, are starting to die in their sleep. This classic horror film and its iconic villain, Freddy Krueger, were created by horror slasher genre genius Wes Craven (the Scream franchise).

Oh, boy, there are no publicity yarns yet what new Pinoy and foreign films will be shown in theaters starting 28 August. Are bookers afraid of the SB19 box-office storm on that movie week?