MANILA: The largest global crowdfunding and fundraising site, Indiegogo, partly funded the award-winning American feature film about the struggles of a Filipina maid in Singapore and others like her.
Filmmakers Patrick Daly and Joel Fendelman solicited public help for the film Remittance which stars real-life Filipina domestic helper in Singapore, Angela Barotia.
Barotia and Daly won the best Certificates of Outstanding Achievement for Female Actor and screenplay, respectively, at the 2016 Brooklyn Film Festival in the United States.
Barotia who used to sell vegetables in Albay-Bicol went to work overseas as household service worker (HSW) in 2009.
“Hundreds of thousands of women from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka work in Singapore – and they would not be here if they had better opportunities at home,” the filmmakers said. “In some cases women are trying to create better economic opportunities for their families – often remitting all of their wages to support their entire extended families.”
“For other women it was a refuge from domestic abuse and broken relationships – migration being a socially preferable option to divorce. In just about all cases, their lives back home were highly prescribed by the values of their often conservative communities and the weight of family expectations,” they added.
Remittance, which has also been recognized in other film festivals like Flyway Film Festival (Best Feature Film), Greenbay Film Festival (Audience Award), and Richmond International Film Festival (Best of Festival Award – Narrative Feature, Best Directing Award), will soon be screened at 21 other movie festivals.
The film which also features Filipino actors Paolo O’Hara and Olive Nieto is scheduled to screen at the World Premieres Film Festival Philippines, held from June 29 to July 10 in Manila.
