Armando ‘Bing’ Lao and stories found in life

For Armando “Bing” Lao, stories did not have to be imposed upon life; they could be discovered within it. By observing people, places and social conditions closely, the screenwriter and filmmaker developed a mode of storytelling that helped redefine Philippine independent cinema and influenced generations of filmmakers.

Lao was posthumously declared National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts in September 2026. He joined Gabriel “Gabby” Formoso in the field of architecture and allied arts; Rafael “Nonoy” Froilan in dance; Maria Beatriz “Patis” Tesoro in design;Gregorio C. Brillantes (posthumous) and Nicanor G. Tiongson in literature; Alfredo S. Buenaventura in music; Teodoro L. Hilado in theater (posthumous); and Imelda Cajipe-Endaya and Nunelucio M. Alvarado in visual arts.

Born on 6 September 1948, Lao was largely self-taught as a screenwriter. He began his career in the 1980s, writing for television and commercial films, including genre pictures and komiks adaptations. Despite the demands and conventions of mainstream production, he brought emotional complexity and social awareness to his characters and stories.

His screenplay for Takaw Tukso (1986) earned a Gawad Urian, while Hati Tayo sa Magdamag (1988) received a FAMAS award. His other early works included Itanong Mo sa Buwan (1988), whose nonlinear structure presented memory and trauma from shifting perspectives.

Lao later found greater creative freedom in independent cinema. His screenplays for Pila Balde (1999), Tuhog (2001), La Vida Rosa (2001) and Minsan Pa (2004) explored ordinary lives, difficult relationships and marginalized communities through structures that departed from conventional three-act storytelling.

His most influential contribution was the development of the “Found Story” approach. Grounded in research and immersion, it emphasized actual locations, present action, social environment and characters shaped by their immediate circumstances. Instead of relying heavily on exposition, flashbacks or predetermined formulas, the method encouraged filmmakers to discover narratives in lived experience.

The approach informed acclaimed films such as Jeffrey Jeturian’s Kubrador (2006) and Brillante Mendoza’s Serbis (2008) and Kinatay (2009), for which Lao wrote or developed the screenplays. These films placed viewers within specific communities and confronted them with uncomfortable realities without offering easy distance or resolution.

As a director, Lao further explored unconventional narrative forms in Biyaheng Lupa (2009), set largely aboard a provincial bus, and Dukit (2013), which follows a master woodcarver through a nonchronological meditation on art, faith and memory.

Lao’s influence extended well beyond his filmography. Through workshops at the University of the Philippines, Mowelfund, the Asia Pacific Film Institute and his own Found Story workshops, he guided emerging screenwriters and directors. Among the filmmakers associated with his mentorship were Brillante Mendoza, Jeffrey Jeturian, Ralston Jover, Zig Dulay and Eduardo Roy.

Lao died on 18 June 2024, at 75. He left behind not merely a collection of acclaimed films, but a way of seeing—one that taught filmmakers to look beyond formula and find stories already unfolding in Filipino lives.