An Pasko ni Intoy/Intoy's Christmas

Excerpt from An Pasko ni Intoy/Intoy's Christmas

An Pasko ni Intoy/Intoy's Christmas is a 30-minute video documentary that portrays the bitter-sweet Christmas of a child-laborer in a remote, swampy community in Leyte. I directed/produced this video together with my classmate Em Hidalgo for our production thesis. It was awarded Best Thesis (Docu Category) in our batch. It has also won awards outside our school such as Best Short Film in the Student Catholic Mass Media Awards 2008, 2nd place Docu Category in the 20th Cultural Center of the Philippines Independent Film and Video Competition, and Best Documentary in the 10th Ateneo Video Open.

It was soo fun doing this film. We immersed in the community for almost a month during our Christmas break. We took hour long walks with the kids to their school. We had to learn to pee in makeshift toilets, walk on knee-deep mud, survive without electricity, ride a canoe, and fear about it getting capsized, us drowning and our all-borrowed equipment getting wet. We also had to take a 2-hour motor boat ride to the town proper and back every two days just to charge our camera's batteries.

But in exchange of these little sacrifices, we feasted over fresh seafood and had regular tuba-drinking session with the locals. The children also gave us free paddling-a-canoe tutorial (though we never learned). Here are the behind the scene photos:


R-L: Intoy, the docu's main subject, and his buddy Ian


My thesis partner Em


Em directing our camera man Rayg


Rayg shooting Intoy's brother Kim-kim carrying fronds of nipa palm


Inday. She is the only female kid in the community


And finally, that is me, marvelling at the place

I wish to thank these people who made significant contributions to the production of this film:
Ditsi Carolino for lending us her Sony TRV900, Senheisser boom mic, tripod, the financial aid, and for all the advicing; Ms. Ervina Espina for translating the film from Waray-waray to English; Kuya Benj for the free technical support; Rayg, for all the free services; Renei, Kets, Valen, Flau, Emae, Mich, and Trix for the moral and immoral support; and of course the locals of Sitio Palanas, Brgy. Butason, Tabango, Leyte.

Tribute to a Farmer-Leader

Here's a short video tribute for Reneto "Ka Rene" Penas that Ditsi Carolino and I made a few days after he was murdered. Ka Rene was the leader of the Sumilao farmers who walked from Mindanao to Manila to "reclaim" the land awarded to them thru the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Pag-alala kay Ka Rene 1/2

Pag-alala kay Ka Rene 2/2

I first met Ka Rene when I assisted Ditsi in shooting their march while they were in the Bicol area. He was cheerful but a strict and disciplined leader and his enthusiasm was contagious. Despite often wearing a brief over his head (to sun-dry it) during the march, his co-farmers respected and followed his orders.

He was a funny man. I remember him - when I visited them at their camp in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform - telling me that he needed to go to Eunilane to buy some briefs. He said, while comically scratching his head, that his wife sent him his clothes from Bukidnon but she failed to include his underwears.

The last time I saw him was during the Red Carpet screening of Ditsi's film Lupang Hinarang. He asked me, as he always did everytime we met, why he no longer saw me in their protests. I told him I was helping in the editing of Lupang Hinarang. Then I asked, pointing to Diether Ocampo who was posing by the photo-op wall, if he already had pictures with the celebrities who were present. He said yes. I joked, "but not with me yet." And it was the last time I saw him laugh.

This video was shown during the vigil at the Dela Stradda Chapel along Katipunan Ave. and before the funeral march in Sumilao. The clips in the video are from Lem dela Cruz's footage of the Banasi farmer's march from Bicol to Manila which was also led by Ka Rene. Some are excerpts from Lupang Hinarang.