LILY MONTEVERDE

Lily Monteverde

Mother Lily owes it all to a popcorn machine.

Much has been written about Mother Lily (Monteverde), how she started out, how she succeeded (and failed too along the way), her outbursts, her shrewdness, her sometimes unorthodox ways, and even her personal life.

It's not always that she is written about in a flattering light, and one thing is certain - in the history of Philippine cinema, Mother Lily is a legend in her own right! Her reputation precedes her and no matter what, many people would think they owe their lives to her.

Today, she is among the very few who has continued to produce movies even if sometimes her films fail to break even at the box-office, because according to her, filmmaking is her passion and mission in life.

But how did she really start in the business? How did she succeed? Believe it or not, she said she owes it all to a popcorn machine!

During a recent well-attended Anvil event, Mother Lily bares her heart and soul to her fellow Chinese-Filipinos. She related how she began building her own business empire almost 50 years ago through her inmate business acumen, how she survived the odds and how she attained this stature of local moviedom's demigod.

In her well-applauded speech (she was actually given a standing ovation at the end), Mother emphasized that "I am self-made, I never depended on my parents, I never got a cent from them. My father (the conservative Domingo Chu) was a copra magnate who could afford to give me a mansion, but I never got one from him. Neither did I get anything from my father-in-law."

Why she never got anything from her parents was because among 12 children, she was the black sheep she confessed. Her father had to put her in convents (at St. Scholastica's and Maryknoll where she spent eight years in all but never finished her college course!) in an effort to tame her, but the young and adventurous Lily got her own ways, sneaking during the day or even night either to go to Sampaguita or LVN Studios to see her favorite movie stars, or to meet her suitors at nearby Ateneo de Manila University.

At Maryknoll, she so upset one of the nuns that she told her pointblank: "You'll never succeed in life!" She's still a nun when she saw her last, while Mother Lily has become a legend. At Sampaguita Studios one time, the security guard shoved her away and she vowed to come back, "not as an actress because I did not have the looks, but as a movie producer."

Falling in love with her husband, Leonardo "Remy" Monteverde, who was a popular basketball player of San Beda during his time, even more belittled Mother Lily in the eyes of her father who did not like Remy (because he was half-Chinese) and so he did not give her a dowry when she got married.

But although she did not get any financial help from her father, he tried to give her a good education and that was good enough for the young Lily. She was always good in math, science, English and history, she said. "School taught me discipline, the importance of setting targets and achieving goals, and how to work with others," something she used to her advantage when she decided to produce movies.

She stressed that her parents believed so much in the importance of education that her father even put up the Uno High School near Abad Santos, and Chang Kai Shek, in Manila. "I belong to a family of educators, and for my part, I put up my own pre-school, Mother's School of Child Development a few years ago," she said.

Going back, Mother Lily recalled that during World War 2, "I experienced what it was like not have anything to eat, not to have any food or medicine. But the war taught me something beautiful too: The unity of Filipinos against a common enemy showed me the survival and Bayanihan spirit of Filipinos. Somehow, the worst brings out the best in our people."

When the war was over and the country was recovering from the ravages of it, she discovered the joy of watching movies. She was 10 years old then. She grew up with this passion of watching movies and this inspired her to produce movies later on in her married life.

In 1961, she worked for her father-in-law for P200 a month she said when she was able to save enough, she bought two popcorn machines (P1,500 each) which she installed at Cherry Foodarama in Mandaluyong and at Podmon Theater in Sta. Cruz, Manila. Her business clicked!

Soon she was able to save P7,000 and with that she bought the rights to re-issue the Hollywood movie "All Mine to Give," a movie about a mother who has to give away her children because she can no longer feed them.

The movie was shown for a month in Manila and it grossed Mother Lily half a million pesos. With that money, she and her husband flew to the US and Europe to scout for other movies to show in Manila. They got the rights to re-issue "Solomon and Sheba," "Istanbul" and some Western movies. A movie right cost her $500 (P1,000) then.

During those trips, her husband didn't know that she had to budget even their food. Her budget was just for one person, but her husband thought she was just dieting. "I filled my stomach with water, and when my husband wasn't looking, I ate his left-overs to tide me over for the day."

She never forgot her dream to be a producer and so in 1974, with P400,000 she felt she was ready. She used that money to produce "Kayod sa Araw, Kayod sa Gabi." It was a box-office hit in 1976, it made P4 million. And with that, Regal Films was born.

In the '80s, Regal Films enjoyed a spectacular growth and Mother Lily launched a new generation of stars - the so-called Regal Babies. Among them were Maricel Soriano, Aga Muhlach, Gabby Concepcion, Dina Bonnevie, Snooky, William and Albert Martinez, and Kris Aquino.

So far, Mother Lily has produced close to 1,000 films.

"Most people think that I only make romance movies, melodramas, horror films and comedies, and that my only goal is to make money. Most people don't know or may have forgotten that I am a very patriotic person too. I love my country and that is why I made films like "Sister Stella L' with Mike de Leon, and 'Manila By Night," by Ishmael Bernal. These movies were my statements about life during the Marcos Regime."

She recalled even going around with Lino Brocka and Bernal handing out leaflets and going to rallies. And one night, in 1984, "LVN was handed a search warrant because Imelda Marcos wanted to confiscate all the prints of my movie 'Sister Stella L'. Thankfully, by that time, one copy had been smuggled out of the country. It made its way to Hong Kong to the Cannes Film Festival where it got a standing ovation. I lost a lot of money on 'Sister Stella L,' but I didn't mind because it was a film I had to make."

The same thing happened to "Manila By Night." "Imelda Marcos was upset because according to her, I was showing an image of Manila that didn't coincide with her vision of Manila being a city that was true, good and beautiful. But Bernal was brave enough to show the poverty, the prostitution, the drug addicts, and the squatter. Not only did Imelda censor major portions of the movie, she also forced us to change the title to 'City After Dark.' I also lost a lot of money with this movie, but it was okay because I'm very proud of the movie."

She also told the Anvil group: "A lot of us here are Chinese who are scared to challenge or change the status quo. But I have never been afraid to speak out and tell the truth. I serve the Philippines because this is my country, this is where I was born."

In the 90s, Mother Lily suffered along with every one else because of the Asian financial crisis, high taxation, video piracy and because of these problems, she had to think of creative ways to keep Regal Films afloat and alive.

"That is why I conceived the 'pito-pito' movies as my way of lowering production budgets and keeping costs under control." Among her "pito-pito" movies were "Tuhog" and "Babae sa Bubungang Lata" which won international awards. "Tuhog" was also shown at the Cannes Films Festival.

Come to think of it, this is her secret to success she said. "As the producer, I have to call the shots, I have to be in control, especially in the production budget. If Regal Films survived and still producing movies, it's because we have a system. Also, making movies is very different now, with new technology being infused and which has changed things. We go with technology, we go with the times, but without sacrificing the basics."

She succeeded as a movie producer (and even more so in her real estate business) because she is very focused in anything she does, she said.

Today, "the Filipino film industry is still fighting for survival, we still have the same problems as before: piracy, high cost of production, taxation, competition from Hollywood and a government that doesn't seem to support the film industry." But she refuses to let the economy and the shortcomings of the Philippine government to dampen her spirits, she stressed.

The same thing happened to "Manila By Night." "Imelda Marcos was upset because according to her, I was showing an image of Manila that didn't coincide with her vision of Manila being a city that was true, good and beautiful. But Bernal was brave enough to show the poverty, the prostitution, the drug addicts, and the squatter. Not only did Imelda censor major portions of the movie, she also forced us to change the title to 'City After Dark.' I also lost a lot of money with this movie, but it was okay because I'm very proud of the movie."

She also told the Anvil group: "A lot of us here are Chinese who are scared to challenge or change the status quo. But I have never been afraid to speak out and tell the truth. I serve the Philippines because this is my country, this is where I was born."

In the 90s, Mother Lily suffered along with every one else because of the Asian financial crisis, high taxation, video piracy and because of these problems, she had to think of creative ways to keep Regal Films afloat and alive.

"That is why I conceived the 'pito-pito' movies as my way of lowering production budgets and keeping costs under control." Among her "pito-pito" movies were "Tuhog" and "Babae sa Bubungang Lata" which won international awards. "Tuhog" was also shown at the Cannes Films Festival.

Come to think of it, this is her secret to success she said. "As the producer, I have to call the shots, I have to be in control, especially in the production budget. If Regal Films survived and still producing movies, it's because we have a system. Also, making movies is very different now, with new technology being infused and which has changed things. We go with technology, we go with the times, but without sacrificing the basics."

She succeeded as a movie producer (and even more so in her real estate business) because she is very focused in anything she does, she said.

Today, "the Filipino film industry is still fighting for survival, we still have the same problems as before: piracy, high cost of production, taxation, competition from Hollywood and a government that doesn't seem to support the film industry." But she refuses to let the economy and the shortcomings of the Philippine government to dampen her spirits, she stressed.

Mother Lily concluded her speech by giving some advices from the important lessons she learned in her life and career:

No. 1: Be passionate and love what you are doing because your work will love you back. The passion which I put in each of the thousand movies I have produced is the same passion I felt as a movie fan when I was 10, the same passion I had for movies like 'All Mine to Give,' and the same passion I put in the 'Mano Po' trilogy which I made now that I'm in my '60s."

No. 2: Always focus on the basics, like family, friends, relationships, and the rest will follow.

No. 3: Live simply. This is something I've taken to heart in the years since the Asian financial crisis. Now, people are surprised to see me riding in the economy class in the airplane when I used to ride first-class in the 80s. There is nothing shameful about cost-cutting. I sleep well at night knowing that what I have is hard-earned and like they say, there is no pillow softer than a clean conscience when you sleep at night.

No. 4: Invest in education. You and your kids shouldn't rely on inheritance. This word is changing so fast because of technology that only education will give the next generation the tools to cope with these changes.