Fleeting Moving-On Musings on Films 'Halaw (Ways of the Sea)' & 'Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria' from the New York Film Festival

I saw again the online schedules of the New York Film Festival and quickly took time out from my writing assignments to watch some movies. I ended up watching 3 films that include 2, which I thought have been well crafted and dealt more about 'moving on' issues this blogsite has been hammering on these past years. Both 'Halaw (Ways of the Sea)' and 'Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria' show similar narratives on the process of moving on, which each experience is different according to individual circumstances.

I actually cried as I watched 'Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria,' which showed ordinary looking folks whose desperate lives have been pushing them to the limits, such that they don't fore-see hope except to consider going abroad or asking someone they love to go abroad and commit the sacrifices connected with alienation in foreign shores -- all these in order for families back home will have food daily (and hopefully improve their socio-economic standing later on). This is a beautifully photographed film by Remton Siega Zuasola who decided he would shoot it in one very long take from start to finish. The camera becomes a participating-observant in the whole long lovely scene as we the viewers watch and get amused by something very familiar in a well-written storyline on screen, which we're sure we've heard about but have been denying and repeatedly pushing below the laundry bag of our soiled linens before we decide to wash them one of these days for everyone to see.

The main storyline hurts and hurts deeply; going abroad for the sake of the family's well-being is stupid and a helpless move for more and more people who don't know any better. It's a no-brainer of an idea to have people being sent abroad and to be married off to gain socio-economic standing has worst repercussions to the society in the long run. Those in power and in control of distributing the wealth of the economy will soon find themselves being pushed out of their comfortable lodgings when those who have done with work abroad will go back to bring about unwanted changes - just watch how the 2 women who have been abroad in this movie dealt with each other as they obviously despise each other. And so, it's always best that leaders and the governing elites at home countries where these people-sent-abroad originate push strongly to equitably distribute resources to all. This calls for more strength, wisdom, discipline and courage because doing so means these leaders and elites have to make sure they provide quality education from elementary to college, free healthcare, construction of formidable infrastructure, and the encouragement of community-wide entrepreneurship.

Well, what do you expect Eleuteria will do when she's back to Olango in Cebu? I like to believe she'll take avenge in her own ways, the effects of which we like to imagine more closely...Watch this movie and be startled by its narrative, which feels like watching an opera set in an emerald-looking island somewhere in the tropics.

Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria trailer from Panumduman on Vimeo.

Sheron R. Dayoc's 'Halaw (Ways of the Sea)' is another film that narrates a different perspective on 'moving on' (more of the socio-political variety that involves whole-scale demolition works for common folks who just want to improve their collection situation in life) in the sense that its characters are out to mainly take advantage of opportunities they see after lowering their expectations about their respective lives' chances of improving by sticking it out in their mother country. It could very well be anywhere in the world; it just happened to be set in the borders of the Philippines and Malaysia. Narratives of peoples' lives down there have continued to be shared and quietly the characters involved move on in order to weather and make-do with what have been thrown their way by their irresponsible leaders, their local culture, their religion and their individual dreams. They want to take charge in moving on from what has been the collective failures of their communities. There are even some people shown who were backing out from carrying out their chances to move on as shown in the characters of the 2 ladies who decided they will change tracks by not crossing over to Sabah. They apparently were luckier as they never got raped, which happened to another ordinary looking lady-character who was in the boat trip to Sabah and was violently overpowered during a brief stop-over in Mamanok Island somewhere in the wide and engulfing Sulu Sea, while she was taking a much needed shower to clean off the filth she got while in transit. And she apparently got more filth as the narrative of this movie continued.

Mr Dayoc, the director, was around last night when I saw this movie; he's from Zamboanga and he seems to be very familiar with stories that have the same threads as those mini-stories shown in his movie. The usual Question&Answer Session after the screening yielded out those topics of interests from non-Filipinos from the audience. They sounded intrigued by the fact that Sabah is actually a property that belonged to the Sultan of Sulu, whose sultanate has been around even before the Spaniards came to the Philippine archipelago in the 16th century. They were intrigued further by the idea that there are generations of stateless persons in Sabah and who were originally from the Philippines but are outcasts from both the Philippines and Malaysia. What do we do with these issues? Well, we can still be petty and oblivious with what's happening around us just like when the audience was amused to learn that Maria Isabel Lopez, one of the stars of the movie, was a beauty queen and who represented the Philippines to the Ms. Universe Pageant many years ago.

Yes, it really seems that the mini-stories on moving on in this movie take place all the time --- it's high time now that we put an end, even in our own bit by bit manner in our respective communities, to the injustices being perpetually committed whenever people go abroad to partake and do roles in the many modernized forms of white slavery, which continues to be perpetrated by many players and being done under the context of 'moving on,' i.e., the misleading notions on going abroad to improve ordinary people's lives.