Culture Reduced to Western Entertainment
Bontoc Eulogy is a mockumentary film which is narrated by an unnamed Filipino-American immigrant who is trying to discover the nature of his roots through uncovering his family’s past. It could be identified as a sarswela film since it features recordings and images of everyday life of Filipinos. Most of the film focuses on the disappearance of his grandfather Markod, an Igorot warrior who was one of the Filipinos taken to America during the American occupation. Markod’s tribe is only one of the few indigenous groups flown to the US as participants of St. Louis World’s Fair.
As the story starts, two children were shown playing and looking at photos of native Filipinos. It could be assumed that these children are also Filipino-American and could be the children of the narrator. From this scene, the wide-ranging change of Filipino’s identity was clearly exhibited – from tropical to more westernized facial features, from brown to a lighter complexion, from native to fashionable clothing, from performing rituals to playing on the playground, etc. This is a clear manifestation of the invasion of western civilization and the stigmatization of aboriginal culture from the moment of their colonization up until the modern day. Native customs and values has becoming mere history and that indigenous people probably won’t be recognizable to present-day citizens. “If my children found Markod, I wonder if they would recognize him.”, the narrator uttered.
Bontoc Eulogy uses a combination of reenactments and actual footage of the everyday life in the Philippines which are repeated throughout the film. According to Doy Del Mundo who wrote Native Resistance: Philippine Cinema and Colonialism, 1898-1941, “they are images of everyday scenes, but for the foreigner they must have appeared to be strange faces, places and practices.” This film did not use other actors with other nationality to portray Filipinos but instead, uses actual footages and actual natives. Most of the films nowadays uses the Hollywood style of filming to make it more marketable to the masses. They use highly-advance cameras and audio equipment, features well-known actors, offers structured plot, etc. Most documentaries uses newly filmed reenactments and modernized imaging but despite being produced in 1995, Bontoc Eulogy remained faithful to its content and focused on the reality of the matter. From the measures also given by Del Mundo, this film could be considered as a resistance film also for instilling Filipino ideas and values into cinema.
Implied on its title, this film not only recounts the demise of Markod but also shows the death of the essence of different Philippine cultures and even its national identity. Filipinos were depicted as “wild, brown and uncivilized” and their customs and lifestyle were considered as barbaric savagery. With unconventional clothing and exotic features particularly the deformed toes, native tribes which had not known of each other's existence were displayed next to each other for Americans to see them in their natural habitat. They were displaced in a reservation with “no rivers, no place to plant trees and no mountains” which is no way comparable to their homes. The area was wholly foreign to them with “houses as tall as trees with so many little suns.” These tribes were forced to adapt to a completely different surroundings but were expected to live naturally.
These men were also required to perform rituals such as war dances endlessly, “devoid of its connection to the true event” in exchange for few dollars. Traditions which were once meaningful and sacred became mere performances for the amusement of the Americans thus, reducing indigenous cultures to western entertainment. This was clearly shown when the narrator said that western audience watched to their pleasure, unaware of the natives’ grief when the village mourned the disappearance of two Igorot men. The Americans who brought these men to the fair capitalized from the exploitation of their culture gaining all the money and fame without regard to its value.
Also, since the Americans views all Filipinos as savages, they most often than not failed to recognize the distinctions of different tribes hence different culture, customs and traditions. This exquisitely illustrated Nick Deocampo’s claim on imperialist imaginary towards Filipinos on his article. According to him, “Filipinos are replaced by imagined ones, the imaginary annihilates the actual object it represents.” Even though the tribes were actual Filipinos, the display is not the complete representation of the culture due to the conditions that they were put in. The setting was staged therefore, some natural activities and functions were not truly constituted. As the narrator states, “we are invisible except from one another.” The encompassing notion towards the whole race makes the individual characteristic of groups and tribes to be left unnoticed. Even up to this day, stereotypes against tribes or even the whole nation exists from western civilization. This was also shown when the narrator told his friends that he is partly Igorot and his friend asked him if he dances around fires for rituals and ceremonies. He then answered, “No. And the sad part is I’ve never met an Igorot before.” This exhibits that some characteristic and actions couldn’t easily be detached from the names of tribes and races even until the modern time.
From Markod’s experience, it can truly be seen how western civilization exploited Philippine culture. Stripped with the meaning and significance of their identity, local traditions became performances for the western eye. They were treated as lower kind of human beings or even just objects in display. Truly, “man’s soul was bought by the white men.” Up until now, scholars still consider the Philippines as slaves of the US. Our nation hasn’t truly detached from the influence of the western civilization since our mere education system was based from them. Films that are usually considered marketable are those structured from Hollywood movies and local and cultural films are considered cheap and not for the masses. Perhaps, until we can see a trace of such western corruption and invasion, we can never find and build our own identity and enrich our culture – we can never find Markod.
References
Cruz, Oggz. 2009. "Bontoc Eulogy (1995)." Lessons From the School of Inattention. http://oggsmoggs.blogspot.com/2009/01/bontoc-eulogy-1995.html.
Francia, Angel Velasco Shaw and Luis H. 2002. Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream 1899-1999.
Mundo, Clodualdo Del. 1998. Native Resistance: Philippine Cinema and Colonialism, 1898-1941. De La Salle University Press.
Patino, Bernadette. n.d. "Documenting Empire: Frank L. Crone's Photographs of Colonial Philippines." Rewriting the Philippine Narrative. Edited by Indiana University. http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/digital/exhibitions/exhibits/show/crone/narrative.
Zwick, Jim. 1996. "Remembering St. Louis, 1904." UC Berkeley Media Resource Center (Syracuse University).
