In honor of Filipino American History Month, the AFI Catalog shines a spotlight on legendary filmmaker Eddie Romero (1924-2013), who directed over 50 American and Filipino films over six decades, and would have celebrated his centennial birthday this year. Known as a Filipino national treasure and a B-movie icon,[i] Romero was honored with numerous awards throughout his career, including the title of “National Artist” from the Republic of the Philippines’ National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in 2003. The Commission revered Romero as an “ambitious yet practical artist, [who] was not satisfied with dreaming up grand ideas…he found ways to produce these dreams into films,” and called his style “minimalist, but never empty, always calculated, precise and functional, but never predictable.”[ii] The following year, in 2004, Romero was the recipient of the Cinemanila Lifetime Achievement Award, and just a few months ago, Romero’s hometown of Dumaguete and the NCCA hosted a three-day posthumous birthday ceremony to honor the past century of Romero’s contributions to cinema’s legacy, capped off with the unveiling of a bust statue of his likeness. In attendance at the event were Romero’s son, director Joey Romero, as well as the mayor of Dumaguete and the Deputy Executive Director of the NCCA, who noted that Eddie Romero’s works “are timeless and we learn new lessons from watching his films.”[iii]
Edgar Sinco Romero was something of a literary prodigy, starting to write short stories as a seven-year-old and being published by 16,[iv] but he was inspired more by the English humorist P. G. Wodehouse than the traditional intellects of short fiction such as Dostoevsky; he aspired to be an entertaining “pop writer” rather than an austere sage.[v] One of Romero’s stories attracted the attention of Filipino actor and director Gerardo de León, who hired Romero as a screenwriter, and the two’s first collaboration of many, ANG MAESTRA (1941), was released to notable commercial success when Romero was still a teenager. Writing in English, Romero was uncertain about his ability to compose Tagalog dialogue. However, de León promised to have his work translated and they produced a second film together in 1941, ANONG GANDA MO. Film production in the Philippines was stalled with the onset of WWII, but by the time the war was over, Romero and de León completed their third picture, the Filipino romance SO LONG AMERICA (1946). One year later, Romero was promoted to assistant director on MAMENG INIIBIQ KITA (1947) and had his first solo directing gig on ANG KAMAY NG DIYOS (1947), which he also wrote.
Romero continued writing and directing despite his initial hesitations that he was not suited for the job, and he fell in love with the craft, making nearly 20 films over the next four years.[vi] In 1950, when his father was appointed as the Philippines’ Ambassador to the UK, Romero followed his family to London, where he was exposed to influential films such as Sergei Eisenstein’s Russian epic BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925). He also met other directors of international prestige, including David Lean and Roberto Rossellini, who was shooting in England at the time.[vii] With a new set of influences, Romero returned to Manila, ready to take on the Filipino film market, and in 1951 he was honored the first ever Maria Clara Award for directing an adaptation of “The Prince and the Pauper,” ANG PRINSESA AT ANG PULUBI (1950). Three years later, his film ANG ASAWA KONG AMERIKANA (1953) marked the first time a Filipino production was honored with an award at the Asian Film Festival. With his newfound success, Romero decided to work independently from Sampaguita Pictures, his home studio, and his departure resulted in a walkout of several of his colleagues.[viii]
As an independent filmmaker, Romero reunited with Gerardo de León to make B-movies for international release, including TERROR IS A MAN (1959) 
and THE SCAVENGERS (1959), which Romero co-produced with Kane W. Lynn, a former American Navy Lt. Commander with a desire to make movies and connections to Texas oil companies to support his endeavors.[ix] When Lynn-Romero Productions ceased its operations in the early 1960s, Romero continued to produce Filipino-American co-productions with his Hemisphere Pictures and released some of the most prominent horror cult classics from the era, such as the “Blood Island” series with a follow-up to TERROR IS A MAN called BRIDES OF BLOOD (1968) and its successor, MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND (1969). In an interview later in life, Romero noted that he was “constantly amazed” at the enduring success of the “Blood Island” movies and revealed that he and de León believed their films reflected “a pretty ordinary undertaking.”[x] Romero was less surprised about the popularity of the exploitation films he made for Roger Corman’s American International Pictures, including Pam Grier’s starring vehicle BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA (1973). Romero received his final production credit on an American film in Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece APOCALYPSE NOW (1979), a notoriously intractable and decadently ambitious production that was a “watershed moment” in the Filipino industry, employing over 2,000 nationals and becoming a proving ground for new talent who, in Romero’s words, “got their baptism by fire.”[xi]
In the mid-1970s, there was a renaissance in the Filipino film market, and Romero produced the critically acclaimed GANITO KAMI NOON… PAANO KAYO NGAYON? (1976), which explored his national heritage and swept the awards at the Metro Manila Film Festival. The picture was restored and screened this year at the centennial celebration of Romero’s birth in Dumaguete. Romero made over 15 Filipino films afterwards, with his final directorial credit in TEACH ME TO LOVE (2008) at age 84. Supporting the industry he helped to establish and building a path forward for future filmmakers, Romero served as the deputy director of the Film Academy of the Philippines and as chairman of the NCCA’s film committee. In a 2006 interview, Romero was asked which films best reflected his art and he answered with great humility: “I don’t think of myself as an artist. I do what I do.”[xii]
Despite Romero’s hesitance to call his filmmaking an artform, his productions have endured across decades and have had a profound influence on popular creators working today, including Quentin Tarantino. As noted by director Agustin Sotto, Romero was “counted among the very few artists who have managed to overcome the centrifugal mediocrity of popular concerns and produce works of great impact and astonishing originality.”[xiii] At the public observance of Romero’s 100th birthday a few months ago, Filipino Senator Grace Poe encouraged youths and educators to include Romero’s films in their lists of essential classics, as a means to understand the culture of the Philippines.[xiv] Romero’s ability to attract audiences across generations, class and international borders makes his films truly indispensable to the study of cinema’s legacy and to the survival of the artform moving forward. As Romero was known to say to young storytellers: “Be true to yourself. Be you.”[xv]
