On Friday, June 1 at 7 p.m. at the Ateneo de Manila’s Blue Eagle Gym, auditions will be held for the first-ever historical sports drama in Philippine cinema history. It will be an interesting challenge not just for the actors, but for athletes in general and basketball players in particular who would like to be part of this trailblazing project in sports and entertainment. The auditions are open for all.
The full-length feature film is entitled “1936: The Islanders in Berlin”, and chronicles the adversity faced by the Philippine team to the first-ever Olympic basketball tournament staged in Adolf Hitler’s Germany. It is being produced by Blank Pages Productions of producer and director (and fellow broadcast journalist) Arlyn dela Cruz and this writer. It was a long, arduous journey fraught with new experiences and unexpected fame for the Filipinos, whose chances for a gold medal were curtailed by two controversial and political decisions made by the organizers. The pre-republic Philippine Islands team was the reigning Far Eastern champions, having won the trophy in Manila in 1934, and thus was a logical choice to be invited from the continent. Their fifth-place record is still the best finish of any Asian team in Olympic basketball history.
The Philippine team was led by co-captains Ambrosio Padilla and Jacinto Ciria Cruz, and coached by former swimmer Dionisio “Chito” Calvo. The team also included Primitivo Martinez, Charles Borck, Fortunato Yambao, Bibiano Ouano, Franco Marquicias, Johnny Worell, Jesus Marzan, Amador Obordo, Miguel Pardo, Antonio Carillo. This squad endured three weeks at sea just to get to France. They then spent another week crammed into boxcars on a train to Berlin where, despite the Germans putting their best foot forward, the Filipinos encountered racism and snobbery.
“Many of us were getting seasick regularly, there was no rice onboard the ship, and our ball fell into the sea,” Padilla told this writer in a 1988 interview. By then, he had retired from sports and politics. “It was a big sacrifice, but we were doing it for the country. We just wanted to play, to show what we could do.”
At the time of that interview, Padilla and Borck - who was in the US - were the only two surviving members of the team whom an adoring German media fondly nicknamed “The Islanders”. It wasn’t only the media who fell in love with them. Blonde, blue-eyed German ladies were handing them scented love letters, and fans asked for autographs. It was these details that prompted this writer to draft a story. Inevitably over the years, the story took shape, and with more and more research, this writer finished the first full script in 2014.
“The story captivated me, but that was not the deciding factor. The script did it,” reveals Arlyn dela Cruz, who was an accomplished TV and radio journalist before plunging into independent filmmaking. “It has a lot of potential. The story and the script is in the realm of movies I already did -- films inspired by real events or based on true stories.”
There are many exciting challenges to making a period film. Everything from the time period must be accurately recreated or represented. Everyone in the film must look consistent with the period. Suitable substitutes for places that no longer exist must be found. But Dela Cruz sees a bigger picture.
“The challenge is the fact that people seemed to have forgotten this event in our history,” she says. “That’s the challenge! To make them remember.”
There are peculiarities those auditioning will have to face. First, basketball was vastly different from how it is played today. This writer will give a briefing to all those attending. Also, players had to be below 6’3”, since there was a jumpball after every made basket. The only players allowed over the height limit who were allowed to play were the Americans, a political accommodation to avoid a boycott by the USA. The producers are casting players and coaches 6’3” and below for the Philippine Islands team as well as Mexico, Italy, Estonia, Italy, Uruguay and Canada, and actors portraying players roughly 6’8” and below for the US. Auditionees do not need to be from those countries, but must be roughly the same age and fit the general description. There are also a few female Filipino and German supporting roles open.
Does one need to know how to play basketball? Not necessarily, but some knowledge and athletic ability would help. Dribbling and shooting will have to be modified for the 1930’s. A peek through legendary H.V. Porter’s films on YouTube would be informative.
The Blue Eagle Gym is also significant as a venue because Padila studied at the Ateneo, some of the film’s primary research was done on campus, and the school’s annual award for outstanding student-athlete bears his name. Beyond that, we hope that the film will both honor those pioneering basketball heroes, and help correct the historical injustice foisted upon them.
After all, in the Philippines, it’s not just a game. It’s basketball.