Documentary on estero life tops international science filmfest

MANILA, Philippines - Filipinos have something to be proud of once again as a documentary from the Philippines won in the Southeast Asian Student Documentary Award (SEADocs) last Dec. 1 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Nash Anggahan, a 25-year-old graduate from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, entered his entry entitled “Iskwater” – a play on words using the colloquial term for informal settlers “squatter” and the aspect of “water” since the documentary was filmed by a waterway, the Estero de San Miguel.

“My film is about the people who are living near the river waters, that’s why it’s called ‘Iskwater,’” said Anggahan.

“It revolves around a woman who lived near the estero for more than 20 years. She had 17 kids but then most of them died; only four of them lived. She is scavenging plastics in the river just to survive,” he added.

Anggahan admitted he was overwhelmed when his documentary was chosen as one of the three entries short-listed in the Philippines, considering he submitted what he said was an incomplete film.

“We were able to submit just half of the film. Just from that, I was already disheartened, thinking I wasn’t going to make it,’” Anggahan explained. “I was surprised when I still made it to the regional top three. We flew to Thailand and got the workshop done with other nations like Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia and after that the awarding happened. I was more overwhelmed when I heard that my entry was champion.”

As part of the regional winner from the Philippines, Anggahan won 500 US dollars. He got an additional 5,000 US dollars grant as the overall champion of SEADocs. These funds will go to the production of Anggahan’s full-length documentary.

“The SEADOcs organizers say that what sells on my film is the introduction. It captured the heart of the judges themselves. What they suggested I do is to make that the full version of the film,” Anggahan said. “So I was thinking of extending my short film to do an observational documentary film about that woman who lives in Estero de San Miguel — the next estero that Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig will take on. I hope her home’s not yet destroyed so that I can follow her progress from living in the estero up until she transfers to a different place. That would be a good subject for the full-length documentary in cinematic documentary style.”

Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig (KBPIP) is ABS-CBN Foundation’s river rehabilitation project that aims to clean the Pasig River and the esteros that lead to it. KBPIP has rehabilitated Estero de Paco since its launch last 2009 by relocating, dredging and riprapping its easements and will be taking on the rehab of Estero de San Miguel next year.

ABS-CBN Foundation managing director Gina Lopez was proud of Anggahan’s achievement. “We decided to go to River Warriors Media. They are the people who were willing to volunteer their services for the river, to use their media skills to protect the river. And they were mentored by Brillante Mendoza. Nash is actually one of our River Warriors Media volunteers. And then he won! Wow!” enthused Lopez.

SEADocs is a competition to encourage the art of documentary filmmaking in the Southeast Asian region, using the medium of film and television as a platform to engage pressing environmental issues. The film festival, dubbed as “SineSiyensiya 2010,” screened 25 films in 11 venues, bringing together students, educators, and lovers of film and the sciences. Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines participated in the film festival, inviting students to submit a short documentary film on the subject of biodiversity.