The Ashes and Ghosts of Tayug 1931

The Philippines’ complicated colonial and post-colonial history remains an important subject in the work of many local filmmakers, signalling an ongoing struggle that has its roots in a dark, underexposed past. This includes many uprisings, political or religious, that were usually quickly put down by the army. At Tayug in 1931, Pedro Calosa, a local farmer who had been a migrant worker on Hawaii, led one such a peasant revolt.

Gozum’s fascinating film offers a layered portrait of the events using different cinematic approaches. He introduces a filmmaker doing research for a film, in hyper-sharp documentary photo-reportage style. Events from the 1930s are presented, elegantly, as a silent film; the story of the first researchers who come to talk to the reclusive Calosa in the 1960s, is also done in fitting style. Gradually, not only the story of the tragic story of repression and resistance is uncovered, but also the way it has been told.