Dokyu Power to Screen A Documentary That Reminds us of our own Struggles in Health Care

April 2, 2022

In Romania, a night-club fire  killed 64 people and exposed a rot in the country’s healthcare system. This emboldened people to talk about its revealed cracks.

Ths the subject of Alexander Nanau’s film entitled “Collective” which is screening for free from April 1 to 3 via Cinema Centenario’s Moov, as part of Dokyu Power Film Festival. Dokyu Power started last February 25 and will culminate on April 9, 2022.

The film begins by showing actual footage taken by a witness of the 2016 fire at a rock club in Bucharest named Colectiv.  It exposes the faulty construction of the nightclub from the building materials used and the unsuitable fire or emergency exits. Some 400 people were inside the club and a total of 24 people died  immediately from the fire.

Many other people died months later at local hospitals while many suffered  non-life threatening burns. 

Câtâlin Tolontan, a reporter at Gazeta Sporturilor, a  paper in Romania, investigated this unfortunate incident and exposed Romania’s pharmaceutical and government corruption, which were related to the cause of death of the fire victims brought to the hospital. 

Collective was nominated for both the Academy Awards and BAFTA, on top of the over 40 accolades it garnered.

Collective may be accessed at cinemacentenario.com/dokyu-power.

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Dokyu Power is organized together with Dakila and its Active Vista Center. It is supported by Cinema Centenario, Purin Film Fund, Rappler’s Move.Ph, QCinema International Film Festival and Inter-Guild Alliance.

Dokyu Power organizers aim to inspire Filipinos to claim their voices and vote in the Philippine national elections in May 2022 by presenting stories that have parallels in  history and which show people's struggles towards empowerment. 

The documentaries in its roster captured critical times in history and also helped shape history. The films highlight characters who have fought corrupt institutions,broken stereotypes, and captured the attention of the world.

Aside from Collective, the festival will also screen Manila Lockdown: One of the Longest COVID Lockdowns in the World by Ditsi Carolino.

For festival updates, viewers may log on to Daang Dokyu’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/DaangDokyu. 

DAANGDOKYU.PH: Where Content Speaks Truth to Power

March 22, 2022

The internet has put a wealth of data, text, and images at our fingertips. It is also where a 15-second clip on TikTok can drastically alter opinions, or a meme posted on Facebook can be treated like a headline.

If the recent past has taught us anything, it’s that widespread access to the web can shift our political realities with dire consequences. We have witnessed this in the past decade, with the closure of broadcast networks and targeted attacks on the media. These are not only threats to press freedom, they erode our democratic institutions and rewrite our history - distorting the past to manipulate the future.

Amidst these distortions and manipulations, FilDocs and the Cultural Center of the Philippines are working together to launch DaangDokyu.ph - a dedicated virtual home on the web for Philippine documentaries.

(Site Screenshot from Press Kit)

Dokyu Base

The same domain that hosted the 2020 Daang Dokyu Film Festival continues to grow the ecosystem of truth-based narratives, by increasing access to credible information and education through Philippine documentaries.

DaangDokyu.ph aims to elevate the appreciation of documentaries by making them easier for viewers to find. Through a growing public database with detailed search functions, aided by tags and metadata, DaangDokyu.ph puts over a century’s worth of Philippine documentaries within quick reach.

Daangdokyu.ph also makes it more convenient for creators to share their work. The site features a submission tool, through which filmmakers can add their film to the database. Similar to other online movie databases, each film will have its own page, containing its creative and technical information, as well as promotional materials and downloads. Films that are already streaming on other platforms can feature their streaming links on their page, like free ad space.

(Site Screenshot from Press Kit)

Dokyu Mapping

“Documentaries can shed light on present issues and contemporary social conditions. But an underappreciated power of the documentary is its capacity to offer a way of approaching social memory. Films done more than 30 years ago, during and after the Marcos dictatorship, have been circulating on social media recently and are being used as reference to inform current debates surrounding the coming elections. 

When organized and presented systematically, documentaries, old and new, can become a staple material for social education. It is often claimed that Filipinos never learn from the past, or that Filipinos are forgetful. What is not said often enough is that remembering and looking back on the past are not simple. Our collective lessons and memory have to continuously be made accessible to the new generation. And documentaries are one powerful way of doing this.” wrote filmmaker and Project Director for DaangDokyu.ph, Jewel Maranan.

It was Maranan’s initiative to map the Philippine documentary landscape that forged the path for DaangDokyu.ph. After gathering over 1,500 titles, launching the online database is the next step in this difficult process of looking back. With the database available for the viewers to explore and for creators to expand, DaangDokyu.ph offers a way of looking back and learning collectively.

(Site Screenshot from Press Kit)

Dokyu Power

On top of providing access to a wealth of information about Filipino documentaries, DaangDokyu.ph also co-hosts special programs with partner organizations who are on the same mission against misinformation.

Until April 9, the online festival Dokyu Power (The Power of Documentary), will be streaming some of the most powerful documentaries from around the world to encourage meaningful and informed political discourse on the power of people’s unity and social action. 

Presented by FilDocs (the team that organized the 2020 Daang Dokyu Festival) and DAKILA, and supported by Purin Pictures, Active Vista, MOOV Cinema Centenario, and Move.PH, Dokyu Power is streaming for FREE until April 9 through the Cinema Centenario site: https://cinemacentenario.com/

Visit DaangDokyu.ph to learn more. (Alice Sarmiento 9 Mar 2022)