A documentary I helped put together premiered on the big screen on August 14, 2024.

And I relished it: Each collective clap, each burst of laughter, each audible sniff. I have reviewed every bit of the docu a hundred times over the past year, but it was different soaking it all in with a live audience in a movie house.

The docu answered the question: What did the late tycoon John Gokongwei Jr, the subject of my biography project, leave behind?

We’ll be answering the other question — How did John Gokongwei build a conglomerate that has become among Asia’s largest and most diversified? — in a book and a podcast series that are coming soon. The Gokongwei family — championed by Lisa, Lance and Robina — commissioned me to produce this unique and pioneering multimedia biography project.

We wanted to maximize the strength of each platform (in video, audio, text formats), and we thought the video could reach the widest audience because it could tug at the heart, something a cerebral book may not be the best at.

I tapped film director Troy Bernardo to create magic. I had known he could think out-of-the-box after I watched his unique, clean, heartfelt take on different films, and read his published work. It must be because he’s a surfer dude, a yoga teacher, a former business manager. He has the superpower to detach from the formulaic usual, dig deep into what matters most, and weave everything together to answer the original question: What did John Gokongwei leave behind?

Troy, and the production team of Allan Semana, used lighting and music for a hint of drama. Troy then zoomed into faces (to make it intimate) as he asked family, friends, and foundation scholars introspective questions. We digitized corporate and homemade family videos (in VHS, Betamax, V8, and CDs) to transport the audience back in time.

What came out was the humanity of John Gokongwei.

He nurtured a family and built a business both aligned in creating wealth designed to be (partially) given away. This is why the education-focused Gokongwei Brothers Foundation is just as important as the patriarch’s family and the massive Gokongwei Group of businesses.

It gave him, his family, the employees a life and work that have a higher purpose: At the end of the day, the scholars and communities need this legacy to be sustained.

Enjoy our documentary: