Famous Filipino Artist: Lamberto Vera Avellana was born on February 12, 1915 and died April 25, 1991. Lamberto V. Avellana was a prominent Filipino film and stage director. Despite considerable budgetary limitations that hampered the post-war Filipino film industry, Lamberto V. Avellana's films such as Anak Dalita and Badjao attained international acclaim. In 1976, Lamberto V. Avellana was named by President Ferdinand Marcos as the very first National Artist of the Philippines for Film. While Lamberto V. Avellana remains an important figure in Filipino cinema, his reputation as a film director has since been eclipsed by the next wave of Filipino film directors who emerged in the 1970s, such as Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal.
Lamberto V. Avellana made his film debut with Sakay in 1939, a biopic on the early 20th century Filipino revolutionary Macario Sakay. The film was an immediate sensation, particularly distinguished for its realism atypical of Filipino cinema. The treatment of the subject remains a source of some controversy today. Avellana's Sakay toed the line with the American-fostered perception of Sakay as a mere bandit, different from the current-day appreciation of Sakay as a fighter for Filipino independence. Raymond Red's 1993 film, Sakay hews closer to this modern view of Sakay. Interestingly, Leopoldo Salcedo, who played Sakay in the 1939 Lamberto V. Avellana version, portrayed Sakay's father in the 1993 version in his final film role.