Digital Cinema in the Philippines 1999-2009

Digital Cinema in the Philippines, 1999–2009 traces the technological shift in Philippine cinema, from celluloid to digital, by narrating the history of digital cinema in the country from 1999 to mid-2009. It investigates how digital films in the Philippines are produced, distributed, and exhibited, as well as tentatively examines Philippine digital cinema’s aesthetic tendencies that emerged from the shift from celluloid to digital filmmaking. The book also explores the notions of independence in relation to Philippine digital cinema and the Philippine film industry..

About the Author

Eloisa May P. Hernandez is an associate professor at the Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines Diliman, where she teaches art history, photography, popular art and culture, and Philippine cinema. She lectures at the Ateneo de Manila University Fine Arts Program. She finished her BA Art Studies, MA in Art History, and PhD in Philippine Studies, with a dissertation on “The Political Economy of Digital Cinema in the Philippines, 1999–2009,” in UP Diliman.
She is the author of Homebound: Women Visual Artists in 19th Century Philippines. She has also coauthored several books, such as Philippine Art and Culture (2012), published by Anvil, and Sining ng Sineng Filipino (2009), published by UP Sentro ng Wikang Filipino.
A recipient of the Southeast Asian Studies Regional Exchange Program grant, she researched on digital cinema in Southeast Asia, the results of which are published as a chapter entitled “The Beginnings of Digital Cinema in Southeast Asia” in the book Glimpses of Freedom: Independent Cinema in Contemporary Southeast Asia by Cornell University.
In 1999, she was awarded the Gawad Chanselor para sa Pinakamahusay na Guro. Professor Hernandez was elected as an executive committee member of the National Committee on Cultural Education of the NCCA for 2004–2007. She also served as an elected executive committee member of the NCCA National Committee on Visual Arts, 1998–2001. She is a member of the Young Critics Circle Film Desk and served as its president in 2012.