Rights (film)

Last updated
Rights
Directed byVarious ( see below )
Production
companies
  • Free Jonas Burgos Movement
  • Southern Tagalog Exposure
Release date
  • August 2007 (2007-08)
Running time
20 minutes
CountryPhilippines
Languages
  • Filipino
  • English

Rights (also known as Rights Volume I) is a 2007 Filipino short anthology documentary film produced by the collectives Southern Tagalog Exposure and the Free Jonas Burgos Movement. A compilation of independently produced public service announcements, the film is themed around the "present human rights situation in the Philippines". [1] Filmmakers Sunshine Matutina and Kiri Dalena made the film to bring attention to the enforced disappearance of activist Jonas Burgos in April 2007, a case which has remained unsolved as of 2023. [2]

Contents

In September 2007, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) gave the film a controversial "X" rating for "undermin[ing] the faith and confidence of the government", which prompted criticisms of censorship against the board; the rating was lowered to R-13 a week later.

Short films

Final list of films by 2008:

Production

The Rights project was begun by filmmakers Anna Isabelle "Sunshine" Matutina and Kiri Dalena after activist Jonas Burgos was abducted on April 28, 2007. [3] Matutina thought of creating a film that would bring attention to Burgos' disappearance and shared the idea with Dalena. [3] It was then decided that the film would take the form of a compilation of public service announcements made by various independent filmmakers so that they would "commit pro bono" in creating shorts for the project. [3]

Release

An early version of Rights which then consisted of nine films was released on DVD in August 2007. [3] By next month, the filmmakers met with the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative (IFC), organizers of the film festival Indie Sine at Robinson's Galleria, to arrange for a screening of the film at the festival on September 21, 2007, to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the country. [3]

MTRCB classification controversy

Before the film could be screened at Indie Sine, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) gave the film an "X" rating on September 18, a classification which effectively prohibits any film from being screened due to local theaters having no permission to exhibit X-rated films. [3] [4] The three board members who gave the rating reasoned that the film is "one-sided and undermines the faith and confidence of the government and duly constituted authorities". [3] [4] All 13 directors of the short films compiled in Rights jointly criticized the decision as curtailing their freedom of expression, while film director Carlitos Siguion-Reyna (son of former MTRCB chairwoman Armida Siguion-Reyna) condemned the rating as "simply censorship". [1]

After the filmmakers appealed the rating, the MTRCB held a second review of the film with five other board members led by lawyer Eric Mallonga, and lowered the film's classification to an R-13 rating on September 26. [4]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Andrade, Jeannette I. (September 22, 2007). "'Rights' film's X-rated slammed". Philippine Daily Inquirer . The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc. p. A18. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  2. ↑ Burgos, Edita Tronqued (April 28, 2022). "READ | Edita Burgos pens open letter to VP Leni, as mother to mother, on 15th year of Jonas's enforced disappearance". BusinessMirror . Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Jopson, Teresa Lorena A. (2013). "Silent Assault: Multilevel Censorship as Media Repression in the Philippines". Philippine Social Sciences Review . 65 (2). University of the Philippines Manila: 55–58.
  4. 1 2 3 "Ban on human rights films lifted". Philippine Daily Inquirer . The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc. AP. September 29, 2007. p. A9. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
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