PANTALAN

Abstract

Resurreccion, Hannah Laya, B. (2012). Pantalan, Production Thesis, University of the Philippines, College of Mass Communication.

The film Pantalan, which means pier, depicts the intersection of two stories – one of a young film maker who is rich, educated and a Manileña representing mainstream and dominant class in urban Philippine society. The other is that of Mutya, another young woman of Liberty’s age, uneducated and representing the marginalized rural poor. Their lives intersect in a common predicament which is shunned by both rural and urban communities, and that is their violation of premarital chastity. Both keep their pregnancy struggles private from each other, but they reach resolution of their inner conflicts as a result of their brief time of authentic dialogue as they went about their daily lives at the hacienda. Mutya was instrumental in revealing the fundamental contradictions in Liberty’s prejudices and frozen understandings of poor people, a perspective that was new for someone like Liberty who saw herself as knowledgeable and democratic. Their particular positions as powerful and powerless over their life events are particularly reversed in their divergent experience in handling their pregnancy. Mutya’s lived experience educated Liberty on authenticity in relating with the world and with people. Liberty’s initial actuations showed how a filmmaker may fashion herself in terms of her awareness of others in accord with the values and assumptions of the dominant culture where she comes from. When the film ends, it shows Liberty having become aware of her personal oppressions, creating a “disequilibrium” that leads to emancipating reflection and action. The film can be used as a springboard for examining societal ideologies and hegemonic influences on people’s perspectives about aspects of life.

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