Christian Candelaria
From Iskomunidad
Sa Saíyang Islá Candelaria, C. M (2017) SA SAÍYANG ISLÁ, Unpublished undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines Diliman
Sa Saíyang Islá (In His Island) is a film which revolves around the idea of the formation of sexuality in childhood and parenting a gender-non conforming child. The story follows a family in a small fishing community in an isolated island who struggles amidst an oil spill. Meanwhile, part of that community is a prepubescent and cheerful young boy struggling with his identity; he finds comfort in his dreams of becoming a mermaid.
The filmmaker focuses on queerness during the early years when the child starts to develop a sense of being male. The film is about two ways of seeing things: the child's and the adult's. It shows how children construct elaborate play worlds out of dreams and fantasies, and then live the reality. Also, the filmmaker wants to discuss mainly the formation of identity in childhood and parenting a gender-non conforming child. Gender and sexuality cannot easily be collapsed; Queer theory has made this point very clearly. Butler (1999), pioneered the influential argument that links gender identity with performativity. Butler said that there are more open and fluid approach to sexuality, that it is therefore fluid and changeable, rather than fixed.
Another theoretical framework draws on the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud which described how personality develops over the course of childhood. The work of psychoanalysis of Freud was to translate the unconscious fantasy into consciousness. The filmmaker uses fantasy to reference the innovative imaginary work that Dinggoy dwells in in order to make amends between inner worlds and social reality.
Keywords: Childhood, Queer, LGBT, Non Gender-Conforming, Gender Identity, Mermaids, Myth