Minsan Lang Sila Bata

MINSAN LANG SILA BATA

A documentary film showing the realities face by children coming from poor families. Young as they are, they were forced by their financial situation to work instead of enjoying their childhood and feed their knowledge at school. They think and talk like old people. Having food on their table and paying their family’s debt is what they always worry about, which is sad. A parent’s duty became theirs.

In Cebu, Dio and Tikbo slaughter pigs late at night in return of fats scrape off from the animals. They hold sharp knives in a very untidy workplace regardless the possibility of getting cuts. 

In Ormoc, Delena and Cito work in a sugar haciendas to pay their family’s debt. 

The third story was about Bobbi, Liting and Moklo who unload sacks of cement from ships in 12 hours. These boys no longer go to school because of shame. In their pitiful situation, they still have simple dreams and wanted to get out of poverty.

The beauty of this documentary is that everything is natural. We saw what really happen at that particular time and place without pretentions. Just like in the first story presented, the place where children work was very untidy and there were flies all over them. If this was not a documentary film, the place will really be slightly cleaned that will hide its true identity. Another thing that made the documentary very amazing is the interviews. Everything said were real. Their words and expressions were all spontaneous. How they act and react was all natural.