FREE SCREENING: Walang Rape sa Bontok

Saturday, December 12
at 6:30 PM

Isis International
3 Marunong Street Barangay Central, 1100 Quezon City, Philippines

In solidarity with #16Days of activism against gender violence campaign, Isis International and The Feminist Cinematheque Project is proud to present Bontok, Rapeless for our December screening.

To further examine issues of gender violence, a Q&A with the filmmakers Carla Samantha Pulido Ocampo and Lester Valle will follow after the screening.

There will also be a special acoustic performance of music from the film by none other than the filmmakers themselves. 🙂

UPDATE: There will be a special acoustic performance of music from the film by none other than the filmmakers themselves. smile emoticon So make sure to catch this FREE SCREENING of ‪#‎WalangRapeSaBontok‬ on DEC. 12, 6:30PM at Isis International for ‪#‎TheFeministCinemathequeProject‬.

[OST #WalangRapeSaBontok Words and Music: Maryjane Alejo]

SYNOPSIS

Two Filipinas, both victims of sexual abuse in varying degrees, yearn and search for a utopia where women can live without being sexually violated. By chance, they encounter a study by renowned anthropologist June Prill-Brett, Ph.D., which states that the Bontok Igorot of the Philippine Cordilleras has lived for eras without a term, nor concept, nor incidence, of rape. At last, a utopia, where the most heinous of gender crimes is unheard of. Or, is it?

The search centers on the municipality of Bontoc, the locus of Bontok culture. Alas, the move to completely revalidate Dr. Brett’s statement is a generation too late. Oral tradition is now seldom retold, and the last generation of Bontok Igorots who have lived in the traditional ato and olog are already in their twilight years.

Through judiciary archives, local government records, and the oral narratives of Bontok elders, the mission does find its holy grail, albeit almost dead: suffocating under the inevitable weight of alien culture and mass media. If at all, the rape-less society still exists, but only within small, close-knit Bontok communes. Still exists, but trapped in the rapidly-fading past: the last evidence proving its very existence is the collective memory of Bontok elders who do not even know each other, all saying “Idi, awan! Tatta, addan …” (“In our days, there was none! But today, there is rape…”)

In a country where the universality of women’s oppression is widely condoned, how did a rapeless society ever become possible?