Latus
A FILM ABOUT VICTIMS OF CHILD ABUSE.
TRUE STORY WRITTEN AND ACTED BY THE VICTIMS THEMSELVES.
Riooooooot! Upon hearing the alarm, kids both boys and girls with frail bodies jerked and instinctively grabbed sticks, kitchen knives, darts, stones and anything that could be used as a weapon, rushed to meet an attacking gang of kids. That was a scene in LATUS, an independent film written and acted by adolescent street girls of Davao City. LATUS was chosen as the Best Short Film, International Category in the 2010 New York International Independent Film Festival.
That was not a surprised or spontaneous attack. The counter attack was not unanticipated either. Both were planned and even scheduled – a routine, in fact. It also served as a ritual that had to be endured by gang members in order to gain acceptance, recognition and therefore protection among peers in the streets. Gang wars among street kids are extensions of violence they suffered at home – physical pain inflicted on their frail bodies by their supposedly protectors, guardians or parents.
We may ask: Why do these children prefer to risk their limbs and lives in the streets? Because many of them feel that in the streets they have a fighting chance to win or make even. At home, none. Because, in the streets, they have peers that protect them. At hom, no one. Because, streets, despite the risks, are actually sanctuaries for children with dysfunctional families. And one form of dysfunction is the parents’ habit of inflicting physical and emotional pain to the children as a form of discipline. Background
There are around 3000 street children roaming the streets of Davao City, a main economic Center in the Southern Island of the Philippines. Close to 50% are girls.
These children frequent the streets to escape poverty and violence they experience at home. To many of them, the street is a refuge from their sufferings at home and a place to find belongingness and acceptance among peers through gangs.
Yet in the streets, there lie the dangers of grave abuse and other forms of vulnerability especially among adolescent girls. They are more often than not lured into prostitution and other forms of sexual abuse and experience street violence as they engage in gang-wars. At times, they suffer from law enforcers when they run in conflict with the law.
Tambayan Center for Children’s Rights, Inc is a child-focused NGO based in Davao City, and has established the profile of more than 800 street adolescent girls, 353 of them are members of 37 different street gangs plying the streets of Davao.
Tambayan also documented 708 cases of child abuse among street adolescent girls in the streets. Four hundred and forty four (444) of these are corporal punishments in the form of physical punishments (350) and verbal/emotional abuse (94).
The data of the action research conducted by Tambayan also suggest that violence encountered in the streets by adolescent girls is actually an extension of violence they experienced at home. Hence, a good way of dealing with the problem of street violence is to address the issue of corporal punishments at home. The solution requires multi-stakeholder-ship that should involve the parents, community, service agencies like Tambayan, local government units and the civil society at large.
It is in this context that in 2008, Tambayan embarked in producing an independent film depicting the experiences of girls in the streets. The objective of the project was to create a multimedia material that will be used to foster awareness about the perils of corporal punishment among parents, policy makers and service agencies catering to the welfare of children. The film also served as a lobbying material for proposed bills to promote positive discipline in the Philippine congress as well as for ordinances in the local government units.
The Making:
Tambayan, a practitioner of participatory social technologies, organized participatory workshops among selected adolescent girls that enabled them to disclose their experiences, write and organize the core script of the film. A local broadcast journalist and multi-awarded film director in the person of John Paul Seniel volunteered to direct the film under a shoe string budget. With its limited resources, inevitably, Tambayan as film producer tapped among the workshop participants the main casting of the film. The setting of the film was shot right inside an urban poor community where the children-actresses actually reside. Some of the supporting roles were also played by parents and members of the community.
John Paul Seniel directed this true story of two street adolescent girls who experienced corporal punishment at home. As phrased in the movie trailer: “Today’s perpetrators are yesterdays victims”, Seniel unravels how brutal corporal punishment inflicted to children is traced back to the same violence experienced by the parents themselves in their past. The story unfolded scenes on street fights like juvenile gang wars that also suggest that such violence is an extension of violence experienced by children at home. Hence another phrase in the trailer challenges the viewer’s psyche: “Today’s victims are tomorrow’s perpetrators”. It goes without saying that the larger social violence maybe reduced if not avoided by nipping it in the bud and where it all began –in every home.
Cinderella Behind the Scene
The story concludes with a tragic ending that at first glance shuts down any hope for change for both the characters and the viewers. But behind the scenes lie the cinderella element of the film. Acting out the main characters are the victimized adolescent girls themselves. In the cast also are their friends, relatives, and neighbors living in the same urban poor community. All of them are first time actors.
Another seemingly fairy tale element is the fact that the children themselves wrote the core script. As mentioned, Tambayan Center for Children’s Rights, Inc, the film’s producer organized a series of script writing workshops for street adolescent girls who sculpted well the plots of the film based on their own experience. Tambayan also ensured that the truthfulness of the story as disclosed by the children must be supreme over aesthetics or commercial considerations.
The icing on LATUS’ cinderella cake is the recognition it gained from various film communities. The film was conceptualized as a contribution of Tambayan to the multi-sectoral advocacy campaign against Corporal Punishment in 2008. Surprisingly, it turned out into an exhilarating magic carpet ride for Tambayan and the children and their common advocacy.
Awards and Recognition
LATUS qualified as a non-competitive entry in the Mindanao Film Festival on the same year it was produced. The following year, it became the lone finalist from Mindanao to the 2009 Cinemalaya National Independent Film Festival.
LATUS gained recognition in the international stage when it qualified in the 2010 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. Out of 58 films from 23 countries shown in the Spring Festival, LATUS was the lone entry from the Philippines. It was shown in November 17, 2010 in Theater Plaza in Culver City, Los Angeles. In January 2011, NYIFVF announced that LATUS won as Best Short Film in the International Category and the trophy will be awarded in Cannes Film Festival on May 2011.
Tambayan believes that such feat is a testament that children, who are wrought by domestic violence that drove them to the streets, can be aware of their risk taking behaviors, rebuild their lives and attain higher potentials like normal and well endowed children, if provided with the right understanding and support from society.
The Road Ahead
With all the accolades that the film received, Tambayan believes that the ultimate honor lies on how it will help change the world a better place for children, especially those who frequent the streets, to survive. LATUS which was shown in several cities in the Philippines is now being primed for roadshow presentations in Scandinavian countries, Germany, Netherlands and France after the Cannes festival. Aside from promoting international awareness on the issue, the trip also will be seeking funding support for the programs of Tambayan and for the production of the sequel of LATUS. Tambayan has been working with street children for 15 years.