Film and Discussion: Amon Banwa sa Lawud (Our Island of the Mangrove Moons)

AMON BANWA NG DAGAT (Our Town of the Mangrove Moons) This 90 min. film feature tackles the stories and issues affecting fisherfolk in Suyac, a mangrove island in southern Philippines. The central dramatic line grows from the everyday resilience of fisherfolk, living by hope, work, and faith, confronting a global problem: the erasure of a people’s historical existence by power structures and neo-colonial moves in high seas. Deconstructing Wilder’s OUR TOWN, it inter-textually explores the contemporary stories of the fisherfolk mangrove community, memory becoming an eye reflecting growing circles around the lives of a forgotten people. What is underneath this struggle to memorialize? The voices of fisherfolk resurrect their stories and decry the insignificance of their existence and environment amidst the global fight for fish and oil. The dead in their boats on the moonlit seas claim their histories, rising above personal memory: they warn against global forgotten humanity.