‘Amazing’ Maryknoller

Her magnum opus, “Across the Crescent Moon,” while delving deeply into the Muslim-Christian conflict, awakens the audience to the socio-cultural, economic and political reality of Muslim Mindanao.

Baby Nebrida traces her sucessess to her alma mater.

When Maria Luisa Fatima Nebrida, famously known as the writer, producer and director Baby Nebrida, looks back on 2019 countless moons from now, she will remember it as not only the year Maryknoll Class 1969 successfully celebrated their fiftieth anniversary. She would also proudly tell her progeny that in the same year, she received her alma mater’s Amazing Alumni Achievers Award.

In whatever she has been doing in the last fifty years, Baby has always stood by the Maryknoll dictum “to make a difference in the world,” she says.

“Alongside this basic value, we, Maryknollers consider it our obligation to share our faith with others. And, of course, we practice compassion.”

Baby describes herself as an “advocate storyteller. Which is to say after you have watched my film, you will leave the theater a better person.”

She is quick to add, though, that “my first commitment is entertainment. But after entertainment, I want to nourish the spirit.”

BABY (second from left, second row) with her Maryknoll ‘69 batchmates.

Her magnum opus, “Across the Crescent Moon,” while delving deeply into the Muslim-Christian conflict, awakens the audience to the socio-cultural, economic and political reality in Southern Philippines.

Interestingly, Baby’s co-producers are her children, Jodie and Christie. “We put up Gold Barn, our production outfit,” says Baby. “Although they took up business, my daughter specializing in international financing, they learned various aspects of film as an art and craft as they were growing up. They love film. So we now travel together.”

“More importantly, the children know my vision. One shouldn’t just entertain; it’s more than entertainment. It is a powerful medium but people don’t realize how powerful it is,” she reiterated.

Baby started her education at Saint Theresa’s College, taking after her mom who was also a Theresian. For high school, she moved to Saint Joseph’s College, the alma mater of top theater director Zenaida Amador. “At Saint Joseph, my English teacher opened my eyes to poetry, metaphors and all that,” Baby said.

“Then, my parents wanted me to enroll in Saint Paul’s College to take up nursing. I told them I could not stand the sight of blood. Instead, I frankly told them that I wanted to take up Communication Arts.” Her choice of college was Maryknoll.

Looking back, Baby enumerates the other values that she learned in Maryknoll. “First, you have to have purpose in life. You just don’t wake up in the morning and do what you want to do. You must set a direction in life.

And then, too, “you have to share. You have to be compassionate.”

Finally, she learned nationalism “The sisters encouraged us to love our country,” she proudly shares. “And I took seriously what I learned from the sisters.”

Her father, Dr. Ignacio Nebrida, was also a great influence, being a doctor. “He was not focused on the accumulation of wealth. He was helping the poorest of the poor. He was Waray-Waray. He would give his patients money for their transportation and medicines,” Baby said.

Her mother, Attorney Manuela Rivera Nebrida, “didn’t practice law because she was well-off. They had lands in Bulacan. Instead, she took care of us, her five children. She was a full-time housewife.”

After her graduation, Baby joined the Osmeña Pearls, the group of young women who campaigned for Senator Sergio Osmeña Jr., who was running for President. “We were called the commandoes,” Baby recounts. “We were going to the barrios, and that’s where I saw poverty.”

Later she would work as a confidential assistant in the Senate where, “I would sit, just man the phone. I would meet political figures including ambassadors. I got to know so many influential people.”

While in the Senate, she joined the world of mass media. “On weekends, I taped shows at Channel 5. I wrote scripts for the drama anthology, Balintataw. I was earning P2,000 a week, quite a hefty amount then.”

THE nominator, Tina Roco-Corona and the awardee, Baby Nebrida.

The times, though, were uncertain and there were rumors of an impending martial law. “Being a confidential secretary of a senator, I was supposed to be at the Plaza Miranda during its bombing. But I had an appointment so I did not go. God really had a purpose for me.

“Then I went to the hospital. Senator Serging was hospitalized. He could not walk anymore. We were holding office at Far Eastern University.

“My father was telling me, ‘You don’t know how it is to be incarcerated.’ He wanted me to follow my sisters in New York.

“I went to the States because my father wanted me to get out. I was in the States when martial law was declared.”

Although she worked in the US as an administrative assistant, that was the time she got exposed to film, culture and the arts. I attended workshops and seminars. Then I began learning screenwriting. I would watch movies, and I would flesh out the characters,” Baby relates.

Upon her return to the Philippines, Baby became a pioneer writer for Viva Films, Regal Films, Seiko Films, Cinex Manila and FLT Films. She has also directed many commercial films, and as a television writer, director and producer, she was responsible for the creation of telesines or television movies. Baby has written, produced and directed 60 television documentaries.

According to Tina Roco Corona, who nominated her to the Triple A Awards, Baby’s tireless efforts earned for her the “Ambassador for Peace Award,” which was given to her by the International Parliamentarists Association in March 2017. She was nominated Best Director at the International Film Festival of Manhattan and won Best Film Feature Globally and Best Ensemble Acting for “Across the Crescent Moon” in early October 2017 in New York City. This year, she received the prestigious Rotary International Golden Wheel Award for 2019.

Baby is a Marian devotee who organized Araw ng Papuri (Day of Praise) in various parts of the Philippines. She organized the New York World Marian Peace Regatta held at the Battery Park in New York City on 11 September 1999.

Tina Corona concludes in her monograph on Baby, “If Baby could choose what kind of legacy she wants to leave behind, it would be a legacy of faith, hope and courage.”