A BOOK compiling critical essays on the films of award-winning Vilma Santos is set to go on sale March 15 at the 2025 Philippine Book Fair in SM Megamall, Mandaluyong.
The book, titled “Vilma Santos, Icon: Essays on Cinema, Culture, and Society,” is edited by UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (CCWLS) Co-Director Prof. Augusto Antonio Aguila and Varsitarian adviser Asst. Prof. Joselito Zulueta.
It features critical essays from Thomasian writers and faculty members on Santos’s extensive body of work, while exploring her cultural and social significance as the “Star for all Seasons.”
“This anthology is a celebration of her exceptional artistry and enduring legacy. Her status as an icon of cinema, culture, and society is well-deserved,” UST Rector Fr. Richard Ang, O.P., said in the book’s introduction.
Aguila, apart from being the book’s editor, also contributed to the compilation with his essay, “From ‘Darna’ to ‘Sister Stella L’: Feminist resistance in Vilma Santos’s fantasy and social realist films.”
Zulueta also took part in the collection with his essay, “Vilma Santos’s Cinema of Abjection in ‘Burlesk Queen,’ ‘Rubia Servios,’ and ‘Tagos ng Dugo.’”
Other notable contributors are CCWLS resident fellows Paul Castillo, Joyce Arriola and Joselito Delos Reyes, Creative Writing instructor Louie Zaraspe, Filipino instructor Mark Angeles, UST Publishing House Director Benedict Parfan, and Faculty of Arts and Letters Dean Melanie Turingan.
The book signing for “Vilma Santos, Icon: Essays on Cinema, Culture, and Society,” will be at the UST Publishing House’s booth, BO22, at the Mega Trade Hall in SM Megamall.
There will also be another book signing during the UST Publishing House’s grand book launch in April or May.
