Documentaries

Bayang ina mo

Motherland
Ramona S. Diaz
USA, Philippinen 2017
94 min
V'17

One of Manila’s public hospitals houses one of the largest maternity wards in the world. It’s a lifeline for expectant mothers just managing to scrape by on the fringes of society, with as many as 100 babies being born here every day. BAYANG INA MO follows three protagonists over the course of their stay amidst hundreds of other women.
Following the cinéma vérité tradition, director Ramona S. Diaz eschews interviews of any kind, observing instead what goes on in this place: overfilled hallways and shared beds to deal with the flood of births, information conveyed through loudspeakers, visiting times as a huge logistical challenge. BAYANG INA MO is more than a portrait of an institution though, delivering equally multi-layered insights into philippine society, which is marked by a deep-rooted catholicism, the powerlessness of the poor and an explosion in the birth rate. And yet all these issues are swathed in humor and human warmth. Mothers give birth to life, and life gives birth to stories. One has seldom been so close to both at once.

Credits
  • Nadia Hallgren
  • Clarissa De Los Reyes
  • Ramona S. Diaz
  • Leah Marino
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