"The Islanders" (Taga-Isla), directed by Miranamedina, is selected to screen at the Chicago Filipino American Film Festival, which runs from November 9 to 11 at the Chopin Theatre.
Told in exacting detail with archival photography and eyewitness testimony, the documentary is a fascinating look at Corregidor, an island fortress at the mouth of Manila Bay which was built by the Americans in preparation for enemy attack. There were five villages with a population of Filipino civilians and Philippine scouts. The island had electric cars, movie houses, service clubs, sports facilities, schools, churches, and free military transports to Manila.
But the ravages of World War II erased everything. Since most of the books on Corregidor only focus on its military history, historical vacuum exists. The need to fill that vacuum in turn led to the making of this documentary.
The film focuses on the Filipino pre-war life in bottom side as related by Dr. Selma Harrison-Calmes based on diaries, oral accounts by his mother, grandparents, and uncle.
The film features over a hundred prewar photos from personal collections and archives including probably the oldest extant document – a certificate of marriage officiated in 1880.
"The Islanders" is produced by Miryad Cuts in collaboration with Corregidor Foundation, Inc., Corregidor Historic Society, The Corregidorians, USA, National Commission on Culture and the Arts and the UP Film Center.
Miranamedina was the U.P. Film Center scholar to the Film and Television Institute of India where she obtained a diploma in Cinema major in Film Editing. She graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Sto. Tomas and studied Humanities at the University of the Philippines. An award-winning film editor, she has edited all the feature films of alternative filmmaker Tikoy Aguiluz. "The Islanders," which she researched and worked on for over a year, is her first feature-length documentary.
