Filipino film Beijing condemned brings South China Sea struggles to the big screen

A documentary film that Beijing sought to have banned chronicling the hazardous everyday lives of Filipino fishermen and soldiers in the South China Sea is set to open in cinemas in the Philippines this Wednesday. Food Delivery by director Baby Ruth Villarama was denounced last month for being “rife with disinformation and false propaganda” by the Chinese consulate-general in Auckland, which called for a New Zealand festival not to screen the film, calling it a “political tool” for the Philippines “to pursue illegitimate claims in the South China Sea”. “Its screening would severely mislead the public and send the wrong message internationally,” the consulate-general added. Film critics, meanwhile, have called the documentary a “masterful” and technically accomplished work. “The film has a stand, that’s obvious. It won’t sit well with China. So yes, for them it is propaganda,” said Filipino actor Joel Saracho, a former director of news at a Philippine broadcaster. “I love the visuals and the way the shots were edited to tell the story … powerful and emotional without being morose and dramatic.” Saracho praised the documentary’s building of tension, captured in marines ferrying supplies to isolated South China Sea outposts and fishermen braving the open seas – moments he said were heightened by Emerzon Texon’s “immersive and realistic” original score. He said that filming some of the documentary’s most noteworthy scenes, such as marines talking about money problems or fishermen wondering where their missing compatriots were, would have been a painstaking process. “To capture those raw conversations … would need hundreds of minutes [of raw footage],” Saracho said, adding that weaving together the stories of soldiers and fishermen was “masterful”. “It’s a well-produced documentary,” he said. “If all propaganda will be this well made, we are sure to win the propaganda war.” Last-minute changes Speaking after the film’s local premiere on August 1, director Villarama reflected on the challenges of telling a story truthfully while navigating the treacherous waters between censorship and propaganda. One casualty was a scene she fought hard to capture: a roasted pig, or lechon, being delivered by helicopter as a Christmas treat to troops aboard the rusting BRP Sierra Madre, a recurrent flashpoint in stand-offs between Philippine and Chinese forces. “We were not allowed,” Villarama said. “For us, it’s the ultimate food delivery via chopper, when the lechon is being lowered [to the deck]. But we were not allowed.” Villarama told This Week in Asia that the Philippine military and defence department “cited security protocols and operational sensitivity as their reasons”. “We respected these reasons fully. As a filmmaker, my role is to document without compromising national security, so we did not pursue the scene further after exhausting all options.” She credits her uncle, former Bulacan deputy governor Willie Villarama, for giving her strategic advice on lobbying the military. Ultimately, the armed forces and coastguard proved helpful in other respects, permitting drone and aerial shots, even as filming windows shrank from the week they requested to one single, frantic hour. “We were running around the island like crazy,” the director said of the scene filmed on Lawak, a Philippine-occupied island in the Spratly archipelago that is also known as Nanshan. The documentary’s common thread is food, but its underlying message is deeper: it is about the existence of the nation Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla, military spokeswoman Villarama, who began her career with Reuters before moving to projects with National Geographic, CNN, and NHK, brings a journalist’s rigour and a documentarian’s eye to her work. Her previous film, 2016’s Sunday Beauty Queen, shone a light on the lives of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong. Military spokeswoman Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla confirmed that filming aboard the BRP Sierra Madre “could not be accommodated due to operational and security reasons”, namely that “the ship remains a commissioned military outpost in a high-tension maritime zone.” “With persistent grey zone tactics and foreign incursions in the area, certain protocols are in place to safeguard our personnel and strategic positions,” Padilla added. ‘Closer to the gut’ Throughout the film’s production, Villarama insisted that the fishermen and soldiers “spoke freely in their own words.” Over 60 days of shooting, from last June to February this year – including the unforgiving typhoon season – the filmmakers captured the daily realities of men searching for missing companions and defending their nation’s sovereignty. The project’s genesis stemmed from an exhaustive reading of the 2016 arbitral ruling, which took direct aim at China’s so-called nine-dash line claim, as well as briefings from retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio and human rights lawyer Howard Calleja, who would become executive producer. “So we had to read it and absorb it and contextualise it to the most personal level,” Villarama said. “Definitely we want the story of the West Philippine Sea to go closer to the gut of every Filipino audience [member]. And what better way to do this than through food,” she said, using Manila’s term for those parts of the South China Sea it claims as its own. “The seafood Filipinos eat comes from the West Philippine Sea … so protecting the West Philippine Sea means our stomachs are protected, that we will be able to enjoy that food.” Villarama said she hoped that Chinese nationals might also see the film to spark a human conversation between two countries that are so often at odds. The film, which had a privately funded production budget of 15 million pesos (US$264,000), reportedly cost less than most other documentaries, a testament to the team’s resourcefulness. Calleja said he supported the film’s production with the aim of “humanising” a conflict too often portrayed as an abstract struggle between states. “This affects the daily lives of the fishermen, navy and coastguard … and our food basket,” he stressed. After viewing the film, Colonel Padilla said that “it resonates on many levels, but what struck me most were the scenes that captured the shared resilience of our troops and our fisherfolk – two frontliners in our fight for sovereignty.” “The documentary’s common thread is food, but its underlying message is deeper: it is about the existence of the nation,” she said. “And we hope this message remains centred on the shared courage of ordinary Filipinos – sailors, soldiers, and fishermen alike – not just as subjects of conflict, but as symbols of sovereignty.” Independent polls show that most Filipinos support a more assertive stance in the West Philippine Sea, even as few will ever set foot there. With Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea – to give Villarama’s documentary its full title – they are invited to experience the lushness, beauty and danger of a region at the heart of the nation’s struggle for sovereignty.

Filipino film Beijing condemned brings South China Sea struggles to the big screen

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea, which opens on Wednesday, explores the conflict through the lens of daily life

Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea, which opens on Wednesday, explores the conflict through the lens of daily life