|
|
 |
|
"THE ISLANDERS"
|
DOCUMENTARY - 97 min - English with English subtitles - stereo sound. - packaged in a historic presentation souvenir brochure,
THE ISLANDERS, produced in co-operation with the Corregidor Historic Society, celebrates a Corregidor that lives on in the hearts and minds of its former inhabitants and combatants, but it is no mere nostalgia. It invites us to use our mind's eye to experience what through their own eyes, a homeland. Avoiding a narrator, its creator Mirana Medina uses her award-winning experience as a film editor to shuffle between the pre-war past and present, between the lives of the Filipino civilians of its five barrios, and those of Corregidor's privileged American residents. What started as a personal search for a lost kinship, has became a wider chronicle of two cultures surviving in peace and splintering through conflict. It also brings to its viewers a better appreciation of present-day Corregidor. DETAIL - Unknown to many, there was a thriving population of Filipino civilians and Philippine Scouts distributed across Corregidor's five barrios. Although functioning strictly as a fort, the island also a homeland paradise. Food was abundant, water was plentiful and clean, there were trolley cars, a movie house, an efficient elementary school system, service clubs, reliable electricity, a vibrant social life - and no unemployment problem. Life in Bottomside - where the Filipino civilian population was concentrated - is seen through the eyes of a number of residents who went on to significant achievements later in life - Jose Estrella, PMA '45, former aide-de-camp of Pres. Raymon Magsaysay, Dr. Isagani R. Medina, Profesor Emeritus, UP Department of History and NCCA Lifetime Achievement Awardee in Cultural Research and several others. Life in Topside is typified by two generations of the Harrison family, related by Dr. Selma Harrison-Calmes, Chief Physician, Department of Anaesthesiology, Olive-View, UCLA Medical Center. She was born on Corregidor of a West Point heritage, and her accounts are based on stories, photographs, diaries, letters and research gathered throughout a lifetime of interest. War literally pulverised their paradise, leaving not just the ruins which seen in this beautiful documentary, but in memories and anecdotes which have lived on in its disinherited population. By avoiding a narrator, Merinamedina shuffles the past and present time by intercutting materials from archives, libraries and personal collections to build up a sweet and sad picture of a lost civility. The film was produced in collaboration with the Corregidor Foundation
Inc., the Corregidor Historic Society, The Corregidorians USA, the National
Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the UP Film Centre. Item Name: DVD - The Islanders |
 |
|
