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PAYATAS
2008.05.29
Payatas Dumpsite, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines 1999-2000/copyright Nana Buxani
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Payatas Dumpsite, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines 1999-2000/copyright Nana Buxani
coming up....in the next days:)
[i]meanwhile, editing the pictures for this blog..I remember memories of conversations, admonitions, during my stay in Nueremberg, Germanyt o show the film "BUNSO", a documentary i have co directed/ photographed and filmed. After the screening, a group of Filipino overseas, migrants, married to Germans, approached me while i was sitting at the cafe/lounge outside the cinema.. They introduced themselves, offered me beer and wine. I said, "ohh, later..come sit with me...." The conversation later on veered towards , hmmm.."why do you photograph, film, show such misery abour our country??" why not show what is beautiful, what is good....."
I said, ok now, let me have that beer or wine that you all offered...
I listened carefully to what they said.. for sometime i didn't speak. I was silent.
I was with the 2 Israelis, producer, Osnat Trabelsi (Arna's Children, and editor of the film Checkpoint, Era Lapid, both beautiful films exploring Palestine and Israeli relations/conflict).. Both women, wonderful, engaging, talented and well informed!
The Filipinos sat, the Israelis left. They must have sensed something no?
After the Filipinos (about 5 or 6 of them) spoke about misery, why oh why i have to show this film on children in prisons to the German audience.."what a shame" Nakakahiya sa mga asawa namin! Our husbands would think we are a poor country! one exclaimed..
A barrage of comments, admonitions, shame on you words!
I drank my beer silently...
finished it.
ordered one more..but stopped drinking the second one.
lighted a cigarette.
pause.
listened. smoked, puffed...sipped my beer...again.
Then i spoke.
I asked: when was the last time you have been back home?
when was the last time you looked, and saw and felt how it is to go hungry?
when more than 60% of our countrymen sleep in cardboard shantyhouses, when farmers and peasants have fought hard and shed blood for years and years to own land, but they could not.
when you see so many homeless people in the urban centers, of children working and becoming child labourers?
when children steal to have something to eat?
the newspapers, magazines can afford to publish lifestyles of the rich and famous. of their lavish ways and parties.
they will always have a a space in glossy magazines, in the sunday papers, they can pay for advertising, their wants and needs.
but for many, who can not... this is their space.
their voice. their images.
Now i said : why did you ever leave?
is it because ,you have grown tired of our country?
to escape poverty?
to want more?
a better life no?
why not. i do not question that.
what i question and ask of you: you can be part of doing something. of giving back..afterall, you have a much better life here?
