Tender contrasts
It is common for media practitioners in mainstream, major production outfits to dismiss documentary filmmakers as “lazy shooters” because unlike them, the latter do not spend so much time planning in minute details every shot and sequence of their materials.
As well, moviegoers and viewers generally lack appreciation for the documentary genre because of its seeming lack in production values, consequently leading most business enterprises to regard the format as not bankable.
What many fail to see outside the apparent effortless point-and-shoot treatment of this genre, however, is the untapped potential of documentary films, which goes beyond the audio-visual medium and the narrative form.
Documentary filmmaking is akin to life itself. The real and the true gradually reveal themselves through what is seen and heard, and what is not.
To watch documentaries is to (re)discover life, or at least a part of it.
Such has been my belief since my elementary school days when I started being enamored in the genre, and such was manifested in Adjani Arumpac’s film “War is a Tender Thing”.
The film begins with interviews of Arumpac’s parents, who we figure to have separated due to their differences, as if the film itself was Arumpac’s brave attempt at rediscovering a part of her identity.
Arumpac lovingly shoots her camera to direct relatives, and as we gradually explore the history of her ancestry, so too do their untold, turbulent, unresolved conflicts resurface. The deeply felt grievances were never highlighted — one strength of the film through subtlety — although we feel the pain that was evident in their eyes.
Anchored in these individual stories, Arumpac weaves a wider perspective of an external tension, long fought in the southern island of the Philippines.
This time, though, we see conflict in Mindanao differently — away from the blinding light of media coverages which stereotype Moros as communist rebels or leftist groups, and far from the deafening screams of protesters in the streets.
We discover the wars — which are rarely religious in context but are always politically motivated — through the stories of those who have lived and those who still are living in conflict areas. •
UPDATE: 18 October 2014
I sent director Adjani Arumpac a message the morning after I watched the screening of her film War Is a Tender Thing to show my appreciation of her work. Here’s her reply:
As well, moviegoers and viewers generally lack appreciation for the documentary genre because of its seeming lack in production values, consequently leading most business enterprises to regard the format as not bankable.
What many fail to see outside the apparent effortless point-and-shoot treatment of this genre, however, is the untapped potential of documentary films, which goes beyond the audio-visual medium and the narrative form.
Documentary filmmaking is akin to life itself. The real and the true gradually reveal themselves through what is seen and heard, and what is not.
To watch documentaries is to (re)discover life, or at least a part of it.
Such has been my belief since my elementary school days when I started being enamored in the genre, and such was manifested in Adjani Arumpac’s film “War is a Tender Thing”.
The film begins with interviews of Arumpac’s parents, who we figure to have separated due to their differences, as if the film itself was Arumpac’s brave attempt at rediscovering a part of her identity.
Arumpac lovingly shoots her camera to direct relatives, and as we gradually explore the history of her ancestry, so too do their untold, turbulent, unresolved conflicts resurface. The deeply felt grievances were never highlighted — one strength of the film through subtlety — although we feel the pain that was evident in their eyes.
Anchored in these individual stories, Arumpac weaves a wider perspective of an external tension, long fought in the southern island of the Philippines.
This time, though, we see conflict in Mindanao differently — away from the blinding light of media coverages which stereotype Moros as communist rebels or leftist groups, and far from the deafening screams of protesters in the streets.
We discover the wars — which are rarely religious in context but are always politically motivated — through the stories of those who have lived and those who still are living in conflict areas. •
UPDATE: 18 October 2014
I sent director Adjani Arumpac a message the morning after I watched the screening of her film War Is a Tender Thing to show my appreciation of her work. Here’s her reply:
