The Department of Humanities and UP Salida student organization delivered eye-opening video documentary screenings for students at the CHSS Audio-Visual Room on February 27 and 28, 2025, as part of the Arts Festival for UP Mindanao’s 30th Anniversary celebration.
“Alipato at Muog,” a film by JL Burgos screened on February 27, focuses on the 2007 abduction of the filmmaker’s brother, political activist Jonas Burgos, and their family’s quest to uncover the truth behind the abduction. The documentary enlightened the full house audience of students about the cases of “enforced disappearance” that have continued to evade justice. A talkback session followed the screening, wherein students learned more about the cases alongside filmmaking tips. The top photo shows the audience at the CHSS AVR at the February 27 screening.
On February 28 was the Memory Project featuring Asia Visions, a screening of two documentaries with commentaries provided by Associate Prof. Rosemarie Roque of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. Asia Visions Media Foundation was an NGO active in 1982-1999 which produced documentaries that Prof. Roque described as “Peoples Cinema or Sineng Bayan, with clear political advocacies that can grip the audience and demands action.”
“No Time for Crying” (1987) portrayed indigent Mindanao communities and their actions to reclaim their long-denied dignity. “Fragments” (1991) showed scenes of People Power and Cory Aquino’s rise, and the farmers’ unrest leading to the Mendiola Massacre of 1987, among other documented scenes.
In the “Talkback” session, students and faculty members discussed the resonance of the documentaries to current events. Prof. Roque emphasized the importance of archiving and, in closing, invited interested students to join their archiving and memory project.
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A scene from “Alipato at Muog,” showing the Burgos family and the military.
Filmmaker JL Burgos (left) at the talkback session after being introduced by Assoc. Prof. Dennis Sumaylo.
An audience member raises a question at the talkback session.
Students (left-right) Rachelle Baldonasa and Heroine Marish Fernandez served as emcees.
The opening scene of “No Time For Crying.”
Assoc. Prof. Rosemarie Roque provides commentary in between screenings.
A scene from the Mendiola Massacre sequence in “Fragments.”
At the talkback session, Prof. Roque with (left-right) Humanities Instructor Jupiter Cabig, Social Sciences Instructor Malaya Lapina, and student Ric Solis. 
The audience at the February 28 screening.