Idelyn Amparo, The Filipino Times Awards 2016 Filmmaker of the Year, has a day job: a senior architect at a Dubai engineering consultancy firm. But apparently ahead of her time, Amparo thought she’d get her hands dirty, so to speak, and embark on a journey to a totally different world – documentary filmmaking.
When she won the TFT awards, Amparo had successfully filmed and released “Beauty in Darkness,” a short documentary on the lives and struggles of the residents of Gumaca, Quezon.
“Beauty in Darkness” has earned the 39-year-old filmmaker a two-year contract with Cape Town TV in South Africa to air the film for two years.
She was also made one of the women ambassadors and a partner with bestselling author Crystal Andrus’s S.W.A.T. Institute, a life coaching school for women based in Canada.
Since then, Amparo has been exploring her other potentials in the arts, while continuing her advocacy of inspiring people while doing her share in community building.
“I will always find time to do my many hobbies like painting, composing songs, writing, reading, researching, video production, and so on. I am also slowly building together with my fellow advocates in Philippines and other countries, a research and a masterplan for a self-sustainable, self-sufficient, Ubuntu-style community where we aim to start the first prototype model in the Philippines,” she told The Filipino Times.
Ubuntu-style communities, which originated in Africa, are off-grid settlements with people living in communal ways.
Amparo said her TFT award has given her encouragement to continue and develop more of what she is doing as an advocate of the causes she believed in.
“Winning an award is not only about glitz and glamour, but more than anything, it is a serious social responsibility to be taken and to live up to. I started to appreciate the significance of being in a group of achievers where the moral support and connection with each one plays a crucial role to the success of everyone,” Amparo said.
Her special message for this year’s nominees of TFT awards: “The mere fact that you are shortlisted as nominees, is already a huge achievement because the selection based on my experience and observation, is very tedious. They do take the credentials of each individuals with a high standard and validity. Success in any form can be a tool to enhance not only oneself, but for the betterment of the community as a whole.”
