Christopher Gozum is a Bayambangueño who first made history in the world of film in 2009 by making the first full-length film out of Pangasinan using the distinctive Pangasinan language, the internationally awarded “Anacbanua,” a black-and-white poetry-driven experimental film tackling the subject of cultural displacement, among other delicate themes.

He sort of repeated this feat with his latest output, “Dapul tan Payawar na Tayug 1931” (The Ashes and Ghosts of Tayug 1931), which won the NETPAC Jury Prize at the QCinema International Film Festival 2017 held in Quezon City last October 19-28.

Written by Gozum himself, the film stars veteran theater and TV actor Soliman Cruz, Urian-nominated Perry Dizon, 2011 Urian best actress Fe Gingging Hyde, and newcomer Paul Cedrick Juan, and was co-produced by Gozum and Hyde.

In the words of the director himself, “Dapul…” is “a reimagining of the travails of peasant leader Pedro Calosa who led the 1931 revolt in Tayug, Pangasinan.” To quote from one online review, it is a “docudrama told in vignettes based on historical anecdotes” arranged in three ways: montage of stills, reenacted interview, and early silent film.

Gozum is the son of Esther Quijalvo Gozum and Danilo Gozum, both public schoolteachers, the latter currently being the LGU’s Consultant on Livelihood. A product of Bayambang Central School and Bayambang National High School, he took up film and theater arts at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. He used to head the Tourism Department of LGU-Bayambang.

His latest winning film is slated to be shown to Bayambangueños sometime in February next year, just in time for the celebration of National Arts Month.