Altermidya
The Cinemalaya XX’s recognition of JL Burgos’ documentary film is both historical and fitting. It is also an expression of much-needed solidarity.
By KENNETH ROLAND A. GUDA
“Ilitaw ang mga nawawala!” (“Surface the disappeared!”)
Chants you would least expect bellowed in a decidedly posh mall that was the Ayala Mall Manila Bay rang throughout the theater, but this time, at least, there were no cops to restrain the chanters or burly security men to shunt the protesters out. Instead, it gave everyone – or at least those who crowded the screenings of Alipato at Muog the past few days – chills. Considering the film and its topic, it was expected and most fitting.
It was the evening of August 11, 2024, and the film Alipato at Muog, a heartfelt and stunning work of documentary filmmaking about the Burgos family’s search for disappeared activist Jonas Burgos, had just been awarded the Special Jury Award by jurors of this year’s Cinemalaya. The film’s director, JL Burgos, was evidently in shock, sauntering toward the stage amid the chants and triumphant music blaring through the sound system. He eventually took the mike and managed to speak – despite the sobs. “It is unexpected,” he said. “I just wanted to look for my brother.”
This was a historic recognition. Before Alipato at Muog, Cinemalaya never had a documentary film as one of its finalists in the full-length film category in its twenty years of existence. This is surprising, of course, because documentary filmmakers and alternative media practitioners have thrived in the margins for more than two decades now. Social media has, by and large, blurred the lines between mainstream and alternative. It was long overdue.
But it was historic in other ways. Just as the chants in Ayala Mall Manila Bay were unexpected, so were narratives that directly confront the military establishment heretofore unseen in mainstream widescreens. Alipato at Muog made history with its courage. Hopefully, it inspires many others to also dare challenge coercive powers-that-be.
Among the film’s courageous contributions is its indictment, not just of individual military officials undoubtedly involved in Jonas’ abduction, but of an entire infrastructure of silence and suppression. As the film points out, there have been many others, abducted and lost in the shadows, from past to present administrations. When considered with reporting from alternative and mainstream journalists like Patricia Evangelista, among many others, it can be reasonably said that human rights abuses in the country have been the norm and not the exception. The victims and survivors are legion, and the stories already told represent a mere fraction of the systemic problem.
Jonas’ case was not unique. But while watching Alipato at Muog, one gets the sense that it is a film that only JL Burgos – a committed visual artist and Jonas’ younger brother – can make. It is, as many have pointed out, a cry to heavens for justice. Equally as important, though, it is a most compelling watch. It closely takes the audience along in the search. By the end of it, we will have fully become part of the family, invested in the search for Jonas and all the disappeared. It is a masterclass in building solidarity. Cinemalaya’s Special Jury Award is an expression of that solidarity. Now more than ever, we need to build on that.
