TGIF Feature: 'Motherland' to be screened at Filipino film festival

A scene from Motherland.

IF YOU are a film fan and you're in the SF Bay Area today you can't pass up the chance to view Motherland, an award-winning documentary by Ramona S. Diaz, one of the most important Filipino American filmmakers today.

Motherland, which won a Sundance award in 2016, is a deep dive into one of the world's busiest maternity wards in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.

Documentary filmmaker Ramona Diaz.

The documentary is an extraordinary vérité portrait of Manila’s Fabella Hospital, where an average of 60 babies are born daily.

Patients share beds, breastfeed each other’s babies when the need arises, and generally keep one another shored up with humor and emotional support. The clutter and crowding might at first be shocking to Western eyes, but it’s the power of communal interaction that’s unforgettable.Diaz drops her camera into the wards and lives of the patients and staff of the hospital. She doesn't lecture about the need for birth control in the Catholic country. It's a compassionate look at the women and their babies and the care they receive while in the hospital. Diaz doesn't judge.

The documentary is one of three by Diaz that is being shown as part of Cinematografo, a new San Francisco film festival featuring movies, documentaries and short films from the Philippines and productions by Filipino/Americans that began Thursday, Nov. 9, and will run until Sunday.

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Following the screening of Motherland, there will be a tribute to the filmmaker with a Q&A with the revolutionary Filipino-American woman who has become one of the most prolific, admired documentary filmmakers of our generation.

Motherland will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco. Tickets are available at the door.

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