Born: October 29 1877, Philippines
Died: February 6 1966
Country most active: Philippines
Also known as: Doña Sisang
Narcisa Buencamino-De León was a Filipino businesswoman and film producer who navigated her family-owned LVN Pictures (which she co-founded in the 1930s) into a major force in post-World War II Philippine cinema, operating until 2005. Narcisa was also one of the most highly regarded Filipino businesswomen of the first half of the 20th century.
In her earlier life, Narcisa and her husband made their name in rice production, recognized as one of the leading producers in Luzon. By the 1920s, the couple would own several valuable real estate properties and engaged in philanthropic activities, such as donating to build a hospital in their hometown of San Miguel.
After being widowed in 1934, Narcisa took charge of the family business, and refocused it towards real estate. The business reportedly flourished under her management and she became the first woman appointed to the board of directors of a government corporation when President Manuel Quezon appointed her to the board of the National Rice and Corn Corporation. In the 1950s, she was among the organizing shareholders of Republic Cement Corporation, which soon became one of the country’s the leading cement producers.
LVN broke into the Philippine film industry with the successful release of its first feature, the 1939 musical Giliw Ko. Narcisa was elected president of LVN Pictures in 1940, and eventually bought out the shares of her other partners, gaining full control over the studio. Giliw Ko was followed with another success, Ibong Adarna (1941), which featured the first color sequence in a Filipino film and was the first local film to earn more than a million pesos. LVN Pictures was forced to close down when the Japanese invaded the Philippines in December 1941, but resumed operations after the Liberation of Manila in 1945, and produced the first post-war Filipino movie, Orasang Ginto (1946). In 1949, LVN produced the first full-color Filipino feature film, Batalyon XIII – not satisfied by the film’s color-processing, Narcisa bought her own color laboratory for LVN. The company’s success peaked in the decade following the war, featuring many of the country’s most prominent film stars. In addition to commercially successful films, LVN also produced critically acclaimed prestige films such as Anak Dalita (1956), which was named Best Film at the 1956 Asia-Pacific Film Festival.
During her years running LVN Pictures, Narcisa retained absolute control over the operations of the studio and of the films it produced, and personally read and approved the final scripts prior to production. She was also known for her skill in selecting and cultivating stars.