Film and video continue to be influential channels for spreading ideas. Case in point, award-winning Cinemalaya films “Tumandok” and “Alipato at Muog” encapsulate messages of indigenous land rights and enforced disappearances in the form of documentary fiction and full-length documentary films.
Winner of Best Film in the 20th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, Tumandok, which means “Ati” in Ilonggo, tells of the struggle of the settlers of Sitio Karabangkalan (in Barotac Viejo, Iloilo) from the land conversion of their ancestral village into an industrial estate by the local government and private developers.
The narrator, Jenaica Sangher, and Ati village leader Felipe Ganancial in the movie, are actual residents of the “sitio” who are in a real fight for land rights. Director and writer Arlie Sweet Sumagaysay, when told by Enen, daughter of Ganancial in real life, about the indigenous people’s displacement during an encounter at a Department of Tourism event, was inspired to delve deeper into the issue with other community workers. The result being the documentary of the lifeways of the villagers as they move forward with their cause and the intervening circumstances of relocation and staying on.
Cowriter Arden Rod Condez and Sumagaysay were said to have added drama to some scenes for a cinematic touch. Co-director Richard Jeroui Salvadico and Sumagaysay tried to present culture as it exists in the film in a technically outstanding way. The symbolisms used and the material elements of tradition were well integrated in the movie.
Jury Award winner for full-length documentary in the same film festival was Alipato at Muog, which presents “desaparecidos” as a theme in relation to social activist Jonas Burgos who was abducted by still-unknown persons and disappeared from a mall in 2007. JL Burgos, director and brother of Jonas, combined footage and interviews with key individuals who continue to search for the former student and agriculturist from Benguet State University (BSU).
Edita Burgos, mother of Jonas and JL, and her 17-year search for her son is depicted in actual video footages. Her undying spirit is what sustains her amidst questions about Jonas’ sudden capture and untraceable whereabouts to date. This trend of the sudden “vanishing” of activists red tagged by government forces continues and the issue of desaparecidos still burns like flying embers or “alipato” and are strengthened like fortresses or “muog” in the hearts and spirit of the families and communities of the victims. JL says that the search for more victims continues as more families leave no stones unturned and follow each lead that they get in the hopes of seeing their loved ones again, express their grief, and find closure.
Once in the late 1980s, the College Editors Guild of the Philippines’ Luzon leaders were invited to the Bulacan farm of Jose Burgos, father of Jonas. It had a sign that said, “Do not kill mosquitoes.” This memory is special because this meant that all life forms were precious in the farm— a novel idea back then. JL explained that this was Jonas’ experimental organic farm that was the basis for his thesis in his agriculture course in BSU, which shows his brother’s resolve to make changes in the world.
These films help continue the conversations fueled by the fight for indigenous rights to land, life, and liberty.
