In many ways, this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival is, indeed, revolutionary.
And yes, it is revolutionary beyond the fact that almost all the entries in the 2016 MMFF became from independent filmmakers (much to the chagrin of major film producers).
WATCH: Movie trailers of revolutionary MMFF 2016 official entries
Case in point: the inclusion of Sunday Beauty Queens by Babyruth Villarama.
Sunday Beauty Queens is a documentary about OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers), Filipino maids who dream to become Hong Kong’s beauty queens. In the process, it reveals the lives they live with their employers.
What makes this docudrama a feat? It’s the first documentary to be an official entry to the MMFF since its inception in 1975.
“Sunday Beauty Queen is not just an OFW story. It’s the story of every Filipino, struggling to make a living and yet finding light and hope in any way they can,” Villarama said.
READ: ‘Saving Sally,’ an MMFF 2016 entry, took almost 10 years to make
To make to documentary, Villarama had to go to back and forth from Manila to Hong Kong; at one point, they stayed in Hong Kong for 20 days straight.
It took four years to finish Sunday Beauty Queens.
The hard work paid off. The docudrama competed at the Busan International Film Festival last Oct. Hollywood industry paper Variety described it “an engaging documentary on Filippina overseas workers’ self-empowerment through beauty pageants.”
Watch the trailer for Sunday Beauty Queens below:
