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Peace Greetings!
While I am inviting you to watch my film Hospital Boat, allow me to share some thoughts how this project came into being.
In the month of April 2009, I started shooting the film Hospital Boat (HB) in the island of Samal and some parts of Davao City, thus, weaving a story about love and friendship in the midst of war in the impoverished island of Sulu.
My script for HB had been stored in my files for eight years already! This is because narrative filmmaking during those times is remote and a costly project for dreamers like me. But in the advent of technology, film production is democratized and “indie filmmaking” took off here in our poor country. A single handy unit of camera like XLI and XL2 are now capable of documenting and filming with the least cost covered. That's why, Hospital Boat is predestined to sail as a Mindanaon story based from the narratives of Mindanoan peoples and the lens of a Mindanaoan storyteller.
Davao City is slowly making headway in building a fledgling but promising independent film industry in the locality. I organized the SkyWeaver Productions with the end view of specializing the creation of full length/feature films with stories promoting tolerance and multiculturalism--themes innate to Mindanao. This will only be realized through collaborating with kindred spirits like HYDEout Entertainment and Alchemy of Vision and Light Productions in the case of my second film. In two years time, SkyWeaver Productions already made two full length films. SkyWeaver is also bent in encouraging and developing Mindanaoan film writers and directors in the locality.
It's also interesting to note the emergence of the local producers who have shown passion in indie film by investing in actual production. They have decided to journey with me in this road less traveled by. They are the pillars why an indie film like Hospital Boat has come into being. They are the lifeblood of this film project.
The social perspective of an independent local film industry in Mindanao, as I would say, must always be in the effort to provide entertainment and education to the nation. To be distinct, a Mindanaoan film must be a tool in preserving a progressive culture that nurtures diversity, and promoting a perspective of non-violence and tolerance.
A truly Mindanaoan film must contribute in the dawning of a new but progressive indie film industry which is once beholden to Manila. Mindanaoan indie films must serve to counter mainstream movies using either worn out or rehashed storylines. Indie films in general are more popular and liberating since it tackles themes that are out of the box. Indie filmmakers are empowered since they are not beholden to any shrewd producers who have long molded our minds with sex and violence.
I am labeled as a maker of advocacy films. With this, I discuss multi-layered issues on how Mindanao suffer in poverty and landlessness. Villains in my stories are the despots that cling to power and inflict violence to poor lumad-moro and christian settlers. But there is always hope in my films because I always made it to a point that my protagonists are my peace champions and they always live to tell the message of hope. For a Mindanaoan fimmaker, it is a pleasure to see on screen unknown actors but who are highly capable thespians who nurtured their crafts as theatre actors and hearing different languages spoken by them is both a challenge and a treat.
Are Mindanaoans a ready market for indie films? I can't answer this. But my experience in my previous film Hunghong sa Yuta taught us. Thousands of students not only in Mindanao but also in Cebu and Manila have watched it. So there is indeed a gleam of hope here when it comes to film audience development. Prodding must continue. I am committed to offer a new kind of film every year. And there are other Mindanaoan young filmmakers who trudge towards the same path.
For Mindanao filmmaking to survive, an industry must be built. Mindanao is endowed with abundant talents, it is also gifted with kind hearted individuals who are willing to shell out their own money to produce films, and we can not make it with out you as our audience and patrons. We can make more films that are meaningful to Mindanaoans and to the nation. Patronize Mindanaoan films and we will bring more. There are many stories in Mindanao that need to be told.
Please enjoy watching my film. Lastly, I want to read and hear your comments about my film “Hospital Boat”. Please email your comments and inquiries at skyweaver09@yahoo.com.
Sail on to our dreams, for peace and progress in Mindanao may reign soon.
Sincerely yours,
Arnel M. Mardoquio
Filmmaker, Hospital Boat
SkyWeaver Productions
*****
HYDEout Entertainment
Skyweaver Productions
Alchemy of Vision and Light Film and TV Productions
in coordination with the
National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA)
present:
HOSPITAL BOAT
a Mindanaoan film by: Arnel M. Mardoquio
Synopsis:
Orphaned by war, 12-year old Nikol found a new home in Isla Kalilintad, an island community of people from different cultures and faith traditions. He was forced to become an adult at a tender age, trying to eke out a living to feed Langit, his younger brother. By serendipitous circumstance, Dr Sittie and Sr Claire, a team of humanitarian workers on a mobile medical mission, visited the isla before they proceed to the other smaller islands. Nikol, eager to grab the chance to work, presented himself as a natural healer and got accepted as an all around utility person for the mission. The mobile medical mission which runs on a low budget, relies on fishing boats offered by the communities they serve as they make their way to far-flung villages rarely reached by medical services from both government and private sector. Each journey to these unknown frontiers bears stories of struggle and survival of people affected by war and extreme poverty.
Sittie, a medical doctor, decided to return home to her father’s village in Isla Kalilintad to serve as a community doctor. Sr Claire, being a nurse herself, volunteered to be part of the team as her vocation and mission duty.
In one of their mission routes, Nikol met Lensha, a thirteen year-old lass who was in deep trauma due to rape and war. Nikol got smitten with her at that instance. Lensha stayed with the medical team as a form of therapy and as the days go by, these youngsters grew fond of each other.
Nikol, Sittie, Claire, Lensha and the rest of the islanders converge in different settings as the story unfolds. Amid the social landscape of poverty, warlordism and unending cycles of violence—the humanitarian mission continue to brave the waters, putting at risk even their own lives for the greater good.
Hospital Boat symbolically depicts a journey. A journey to the road less taken by few courageous souls; a journey filled with love, friendship and a dream of a peaceful tomorrow.
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