Behind the scenes of the film La Vida de Jose Rizal (1912)
Films have been made and produced in the Philippines since the early 1900s with the arrival of foreign films making documentaries and short films about life and culture in the country just a few years after the first few films shown in Manila in the late 19th century. The following year a Spanish army officer named Antonio Ramos documented through film some scenes in the city. He is credited to be the first film producer in the Philippines. Other foreign filmmakers followed suit documenting their travels in the country including Burton Holmes and Carl Frederick Ackerman (aka Raymond Ackerman). By 1909, the Philippines already had three (3) film studios and two years later, a board of censorship and an association to oppose censorship. Some foreign filmmakers and travelers make short films of different scenes in the country in the early 1900s starting in 1905 until 1911.
One of the early filmmakers in the Philippines is Albert Yearsley. If Jose Nepomuceno is often credited as the "Father of Filipino Cinema Industry", Yearsley along with Harry Brown, Edward M. Gross, and some other foreign filmmakers were credited as the founding Fathers of Philippine Cinema hence they are the "Father of Philippine Cinema." Yearsley shot Rizal Day celebration in 1909, the Manila Carnival in 1910, the eruption of Mayon Volcano in 1911, and the first Airplane Flight over Manila by Bud Mars among others.
Albert Yearsley along with Harry Brown and Edward M. Gross made the first feature-length film in the Philippines named La Vida de Jose Rizal (The Life of Jose Rizal) by Edward M. Gross and El Fusilamiento de Dr.Jose Rizal (The Execution of Dr. Jose Rizal) by Albert Yearsley in 1912 and were released within one day of each other.
Not much is known about the pioneering filmmaker Albert Yearsley except that by making one of the first feature-length films in the Philippines he solidified his name and claim to fame as the "Father of Philippine Cinema Industry" (not to be confused with Father of Filipino Cinema Industry).
Source:
http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Philippines.html
https://sinesiyasat.tumblr.com/post/33309289442/the-earliest-rizal-films-were-part-of-the-american
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