The Allure of Gino Antonio

Yes, we have National Artist for Cinema Eddie Romero and acclaimed screenwriter Cesar Amigo for film legends hailing from Dumaguete. But if I were brave enough, I’d do a documentary or a story on 1980s actor Gino Antonio, who's also from here. He fascinates me as representation of a very specific, and vastly unstudied, niche and period in Philippine cinema. Known unfairly as a “hubadero” for a bunch of 1980s “pene” films, he was actually a very capable actor, was even nominated for Best Actor by the Gawad Urian for Takaw Tukso [1986]. His third film, Private Show [1985], directed by Chito Roño and co-starring Jaclyn Jose, is now considered a classic of Pinoy neorealism—which is now so rarely screened. He's retired from showbiz and is a tilapia farmer now in Dumaguete, and I've been dying to interview him—for film studies purposes of course.