By: NIKOS DACANAY
August 9, 2012
By making THY WOMB,
Nora is, perhaps without her knowing it, making many big statements.
First, by choosing an
indie film as her comeback film she legitimizes this new wave of film making in
Philippine cinema. By ignoring major film productions, she is in effect
challenging their immaturity and criticizing what has now become of show
business, a business that values mediocrity and cheap entertainment.
Second, by making an
indie film, she lives up to her reputation as a risk taker and experimental,
somebody who goes out of her comfort zone to try new techniques and styles in
film making. This shows her passion to develop as an artist, forever thirsty
for creative challenges.
Third, by choosing the
subjects of Islam, Mindanao, and the ethnic Badjaos for her film, she puts on
center stage these marginalized discourses, the issues that Philippine
histories and narratives have always muted. In effect, she becomes our Muslim brothers'
savior, and also the savior of our culturally rich but forgotten and neglected
ethnic groups/tribes.
Nora narrates their
lives and their pains on the big screen, telling us how very un-Filipino we are
for being too concerned with the glamour of and problems in Manila and being
ignorant of the rich heritage of the south as well as the discrimination and
alienation of Islamic culture.
By privileging the
stories of a lost and dying Badjao tribe in the south, Nora proclaims their
importance in the whole discourse on the Filipino identity and Philippine
nationhood. Nora may or may not be aware of the ethno/geo-political messages
her decision to make Thy Womb has produced, but I guess as an artist she is
fully aware that she is challenging hegemonic discourses through the power of
her craft. Her past films which she
herself produced are full of criticisms of the social ills of the Philippines. In this small indie film, Nora is quietly
making big statements about being Filipino. In the process, Venice should not be the only
one making this film big but us as well.
/very well said.
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