Ongoing Leap Film Fest tackles social issues

(Published Sept. 13, PDI-Entertainment)

By Oliver M. Pulumbarit

Contributor

The ongoing Leap Film Fest 2009, screening a week each at different Robinsons Movieworld theaters, brings together a number of socially relevant documentaries.

Topics such as child abuse, volunteerism, and human rights, among others, are discussed in the films from different countries. The documentaries will eventually be screened in various campuses.

The month-long festival aims to “use film as a medium to express, inform, uplift, and encourage people to be part of every solution.” Leap will have its Philippine Campus Tour in November, and will also be exhibiting in China and Vietnam in October and December, respectively.

Two documentaries produced by VSO Bahaginan, a development organization tapping volunteers for global antipoverty programs, were featured during the opening of the festival.

Ray Defante Gibraltar’s “Panudlak (Welcoming the Dawn)” focuses on education adviser Debbie Satentes’ stint in Cambodia, parts of her off-country efforts documented alongside those of project management adviser Manuel Reyes’. Running at a little over an hour, “Panudlak” (an old Hiligaynon term referring to rituals for good harvests) creatively presents the analogy between the volunteers’ endeavors and fruitful harvests.

The comparison is forgotten occasionally because of the film’s length. Still, while it could’ve been more compressed, “Panudlak” manages to elaborate on the benefits of volunteerism. The challenges that Debbie had to surmount during her time in a foreign country (from the language barrier to traveling through inhospitable weather conditions) are mentioned. But her eventual transition and impassioned personality are captured effectively. Snippets of Debbie acclimating and teaching Cambodian children solidify the “harvest” metaphor.

Milo Alto Paz’ “RV Diaries” is likewise over an hour long, centering on six RVs or “returned volunteers” who elucidate on their life-altering sojourns. In separate segments, they talk in detail about being transplanted to mostly rural areas in different parts of the world, the initial homesickness, and being changed by the experience. Like “Panudlak,” “RV Diaries” offers moving personal accounts that speak of the universality of unfavorable conditions and repeatedly reminds its viewers that there’s a continued need for selfless individuals.

The Leap Film Fest recently concluded at Robinsons Movieworld Galleria, and is currently being held at Robinsons Movieworld Ermita until Sept. 15. Subsequent screenings will be at Robinsons Bacolod and Iloilo (Sept. 16 to 22), and Greenbelt 3 Makati and Ayala Cinema Cebu (Sept. 23 to 29). Visit www.leapfilmfest.org for screening schedules.