The name Bessie Badilla evokes a string of emotions and adjectives, particularly to the people who know her well. Through the years, she has amassed a wealth of friends she holds near and dear her heart. To those who haven’t met her, Bessie can be described as the queen of reinvention.
Bessie’s charmed life has gone through its ups and downs but that didn’t stop this feisty lady to remain positive and upbeat. From a hot career as a haute couture model in Paris to health and domestic problems, she has deftly maneuvered her way around.
At her recent 52nd birthday bash (and yes, she doesn’t deny her age), Queen Bessie unveiled and screened her latest project—Dance of My Life, a documentary on her life.
“It’s all about me,” Bessie says with a loud, infectious laugh.
The film is centered on how one Filipina penetrated the all-Brazilian festival and became the first-ever Filipina Carnaval Queen.
“To be a destaque (star), one has to be very strong physically, so I had to be strong. I learned Portuguese, I lost a few pounds and I learned a lot of the dances,” she shares.
Beyond the carnaval though, writer-director Lyca Benitez-Brown ventured into the multi-layered and colorful life of Bessie Badilla and created an engaging masterpiece that is sure to touch the viewers’ hearts.
“I’m just so happy with the outcome. Lyca did such a great job. I’m major, major happy,” she says in between giggles.
The always-happy Bessie claims she is shy—though none of her friends would agree—so when they began to talk about coming up with a documentary, she was a bit apprehensive. Her friends Jorge Ortoll and Ralph Pena told her to come up with a documentary when she was chosen to be carnival queen. She acquiesced.
Let’s just say that Bessie Badilla bared her heart and soul in this film, and her friends, while surprised, were pleasantly moved.
“The documentary is very compelling. I thought I knew Bessie already but watching this made me know her even more,” describes businessman Edwin Josue.
Lyca and her team made a concerted effort to show Bessie’s roots and the path she had to go through to attain her dreams. From Tondo, Manila to Paris, France and from Stamford, Connecticut to Sao Paulo, Brazil, Bessie Badilla indeed, conquered them all.
“She made Filipinos very proud. For a non-Brazilian to be a carnaval queen, that’s amazing. It’s a milestone and a grand achievement,” says event designer Jerry Sibal.
Ruben Nepales, Hollywood Foreign Press Association board member and a friend of Bessie’s describes her as a “caring, generous and absolutely down-to-earth human being.”
“She’s a riot! Sometimes I wonder where she gets these streetwise, quick, spontaneous, bull’s eye puns. You certainly wouldn’t expect those off-the-cuff, hilarious remarks from such a glamorous, sophisticated-looking woman,” Ruben says.
Ruben’s wife Janet couldn’t agree more.
“Tunay siyang tao. No thread of hypocrisy in Tita Bessie,” she remarks, “She goes out of her way to help the oppressed and the needy. Her Gawad Kalinga houses that she built and the scholarships that she gave to the Bakal Boys are truly commendable.”
Her story
Born to a middle-class family in Manila, Bessie’s childhood and growing up years are something she continues to cherish up to this point. Then came her fashion modeling stint in the Philippines and a little stint as a television comedienne.
Bessie flew to Paris in the 1980s to pursue her dream as a model, eventually making it as one of Balenciaga’s muses. Eventually, she got married and had children, calling Connecticut home. There, she enjoyed the life away from the limelight, just being a housewife and a mother.
In between, Bessie underwent health and domestic problems but those did not dampen her spirits nor did her faith waver. Bessie lost her husband, businessman Bambi del Castillo, to brain aneurysm in May 2006. Four months later, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Thankfully, it was not malignant and because it was detected early, it did not spread in other parts of her body.
The fighter that she is, she picked up the pieces and moved on. She had three daughters (Isabel, Bambi’s daughter with actress Hilda Koronel; Blanca and Ines) depending on her to be strong and independent. She was not about to let them down. With her indomitable spirit, Bessie Badilla rose from the doldrums and became a much-better person.
“Hopefully the film will be able to inspire women, and even men, I think, but mostly gays, to love life and never give up and to keep on pushing yourself to do better,” she says at a recent dinner she hosted at her Park Avenue abode.
Bessie attended a friend’s wedding in Brazil in 2007 and this was where she met Brazilian carnaval ambassador Renato Freitas who spotted her dancing like a mad woman (her words) and told her that she is the next carnaval queen.
“I just said, ‘Yes, sure!’ not really knowing what I was saying yes to,” recalls Bessie.
The film took about three years, including numerous trips to Brazil to document the preparations and the actual carnaval, which happens for two days. For Bessie, it took about six months to lose 25 pounds, train and learn the language and the dances.
“When people ask me why I chose Bessie for the Carnaval, I tell them when you meet her, you will know. Bessie is full of life, full of fun! She has the spirit of Carnaval!” says Renato Freitas, Carnaval Organizer.
Eventually, all the hard work paid off.
Bessie was selected to represent three of the 14 escolas de samba competing at the 2008 Sao Paulo Carnaval: Vai Vai (literally, Go! Go!), Unidos de Vila Maria and Nene de Vila Matilde with over 4,000 dancers/performers each competed on the first day of Carnaval.
Bessie had to sprint to do quick costume changes between each escolas hour-long parade down the Avenue called Paserela in the Sambodromo or stadium in Parque Anhembi. Some of these costumes weigh as much as 80 pounds as some of them are studded with giant Swarovski crystals.
The whole spectacle was a challenge, especially for the production team, just because of the sheer number of people celebrating on the streets of Brazil.
“We had to shoot Bessie in a stadium filled with 50,000 people screaming, yelling and dancing. It was really, really tough. To Bessie’s credit, she put in a lot of hard work. I was very happy to be able to capture that and show all the hard work of the team,” says Benitez-Brown, the documentary’s writer and director.
Vai Vai emerged as the Champions of the 2008 Sao Paulo Carnaval. Bessie, who was in Vai Vai’s abre alas (or opening) float during the second night of competition floated above the nearly 5,000 Vai Vai members whose winning theme expounded on education and Brazilians moving forward together.
There, on top of the 15-foot float, rising over tens of thousands of revelers, is a Filipina survivor, adorned in a feathery and bejeweled attire, dancing the night away.
(www.asianjournal.com)
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