Angelite alumnus Yian Gabriel remembers the exact stage he stood in the first time the lights came up on him, when he was not yet a professional actor, just a student learning to feel and figure out how to remain human.
In his HAU journey, Gabriel found himself stepping into theater when the university’s Performing Arts and Dramatic Unit took a chance on him.
“Sobrang napakalaking ambag ng pagiging Angelite ko sa pagiging professional actor ko ngayon,” he shared. “Ang pinakaunang nagtiwala sa akin na umarte ay ang HAU.”
That trust followed him from all the way to the Cinemalaya 22 screen, and remains present in how he performs and shows up as an actor today, including in this year’s feature films, “Two Valid IDs” and “Hand of God.”
From the stage, a story begins
Before there was Cinemalaya and regional films, there was a small university organization that provided young Angelites the opportunity to act.
The HAU Performing Arts and Dramatic Unit, which later became HAU Repertory, was the first organization where Gabriel found his way in as a member, learning the stage the way most actors do. It is where he discovered that performance demanded more than technique, it required feeling without losing one’s humanity.
“Yung iisang org pa lang na yun, sobrang laking ambag na yun sa akin kasi tinuruan niya akong maging isang aktor na nakakaramdam and at the same time, tao,” he shared.
That lesson became the foundation he carried beyond HAU, following him onto professional sets, showing up less as technique and more as instinct.
“I am a type of person na sobrang malapit sa culture, so tinuro sa akin ng HAU ay paghawakan yung culture na meron ka,” he said. “Ina-apply ko pa rin yung culture on how I perform, how do I show up in a professional film.”
But theater and film are not the same language — the discipline of a stage production does not simply transfer to a film set. For Gabriel, moving from a school theater organization to the professional film industry meant learning how to adapt in both.
Learning through the rejection
Gabriel’s connection to Cinemalaya began before he ever appeared in one of its films. In eighth grade, he watched Ekstra during a Cinemalaya screening held at HAU, and something about the festival stayed with him.
By 2018, that curiosity led him to audition. He did not make it.
At the time, Gabriel believed he was acting mainly “for passion and experience.” But the rejection did not close the door on Cinemalaya. Years later, that same passion would bring him back to the festival.
“Fast forward sa Cinemalaya 2022, ‘di ko alam na etong pag-ibig lamang sa sining nang pag-arte ang magbubukas ng pintuan sa akin para mapabilang sa industriyang to,” he shared in a Facebook post.
The path into professional film required its own adjustments — and the process was not always easy.
“May mga challenges, specifically the discipline from theater to regional films to again, as a professional sa film,” he shared. “Merong mga kailangang i-adjust.”
For Gabriel, those adjustments became part of the process of growing into every new environment and project.
“And at the same time, yung process, yung mismong challenge, tinuruan niya akong yung experience kung paano mag-grow sa journey na ’to,” he added.
Five years after his first unsuccessful audition, Gabriel would return to Cinemalaya not as a student hoping to get in, but as an actor who had slowly achieved his dreams.
From audition to reunion
On Gabriel’s journey as an actor, this year’s Cinemalaya entries carried a deeper sense of personal meaning. His appearances in Two Valid IDs and Hand of God brought him back to people he had encountered at different points in his career, making the festival feel both familiar and renewed.
“Cinemalaya, especially for me, parang yearly tradition na siya ngayon,” Gabriel shared.
For him, each year brings a different experience. “Yearly kasi, every film, iba-iba yung flavor sa akin eh, but at the same time, masaya pa rin akong makita,” he said, reflecting on the distinct stories, people, and experiences that continue to shape his journey as an actor.
Four years after Blue Room (2022), Gabriel reunited with Asuncion-Dagñalan for Two Valid IDs, continuing a creative relationship that began with his first Cinemalaya film. Through the film, he became part of a story where an ordinary identification card reveals deeper failures within a larger system.
“Through every detail of the story, you can feel the decay of the system in something as simple as an ID,” he said.
His return to the festival also came with a sense of belonging he had not expected when he first encountered Cinemalaya.
“Hindi ko inexpect na yayakapin ako ng mga tao sa Cinemalaya,” he shared.
Years after first encountering the festival, Gabriel now carries with him the relationships and experiences he has built through the people he has worked with and the stories he has helped tell.
“Mahal kita, Cinemalaya. Salamat sa pagbuo ng puso ko! Salamat sa pagtrato sa akin nang tama! Gusto ko lang mabuhay para sa sining, at mananatili akong buhay para sa Cinemalaya. Para sa sining nang pag-arte!”
Finding stories beyond familiar ground
Hand of God brought Gabriel back to people he had first worked with in Topakk — Director Richard V. Somes and Producer Riza Montelibano. Over the years, their professional relationship grew into a personal one, with Gabriel recalling how they would spend Christmas and New Year together.
“Reconnection din ito sa mga tao na nakatrabaho dati mula sa pelikulang Topakk, dir. by Richard V. Somes, na nagbunga ng personal na connection, kay Direk Somes at Tita Riza.”
That familiarity nearly slipped away when he missed his producer’s initial call, almost losing the opportunity to join the film.
“‘Di ko nasagot ang call ni Tita Riza, ang aming lovely producer, sa unang pagkakataon at muntikan na ‘di ako matuloy sa Hand Of God. Buti na lang ay natawagan ulit, and it shows on how they take care of their people at ngayon proud ako naging parte ako ng pelicula!” Gabriel shared.
The second call eventually brought him to Basilan for his first shoot there, where Hand of God tells a story rooted in the lives of young people and the Moro community through football.
“Pero nagawa ko sa Mindanao, especially sa Basilan, na gumawa ng sining!”
For someone used to moving between sets and cities, Basilan gave him the kind of first times he didn’t expect to find this far into his career — a new island, a new way of getting around, a story that wasn’t his own to begin with but became his to tell.
“First time ko nag-shoot doon at nag-motor, salamat sa wild experience!” Gabriel shared.
Even something as simple as the motorcycle ride stayed with him, the kind of detail that ends up meaning more than it should once the work is done.
“Para akong naka world cup dito!”
The comparison captures what the film represented to him — the scale, the adrenaline, the sense of having shown up for something bigger than himself, and proof that the work could still surprise him, years into doing it.
Staying true to the story
Across the different stages of his career, Gabriel keeps returning to the same idea — that acting still has something to teach him.
“Ang Cinemalaya, nagkukuwento siya,” he said. “Every film, meron at meron kang matututunan.”
Cinemalaya 22 gave him another lesson to carry into his future projects: to give justice to a character while remaining true to it.
“So, siguro, for this year, ang ma-a-apply ko is kung paano mabibigyan ng hustisya ang karakter at yun, manatiling totoo.”
For Gabriel, authenticity is not something separate from acting — it is part of how he understands the responsibility of carrying someone else’s story.
“Yun din siguro yung tinuro, ‘di lang ng Cinemalaya, kundi ng buong taon na ’to sa akin: panatilihin ang pagiging genuine at totoo,” he shared.
An Angelite student who first learned to feel on a university stage, a failed audition that sent him searching instead of giving up, a festival that eventually welcomed him back — these are the marks of the road Gabriel has walked to get here.
The stage has changed since then, but the lesson he learned remains: to feel, to stay human, and to give every story he’s handed the heart it deserves.
