Bontoc, Mountain Province– Mountain Province General Comprehensive High School (MPGCHS) will represent the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in the National Adolescent Health and Development (AHD) Film Festival with its documentary ‘Atsar’ that features the pressing issues being faced by the youth in the region.
Outpacing the seven top finalists in the regional level, the MPGCHS’ entry bagged most of the awards such as best film, best cinematography, best production design, best poster, best actress and best supporting actress during the premier and awarding program at the Venus Park View Hotel, Baguio City on December 20, 2017.
Earlier in September, MPGCHS qualified for the regional script writing competition along with the other top seven finalists out of 31 from CAR: five films from the different schools of Baguio City and two from Ifugao.
With the theme, “Post Millennial Filipinos: Renewed Hope vs. Risk”, the competition which is now in its third year, focuses on the sexual and non-sexual risks that young people engage in with little knowledge on their impact to their lives.
The festival aims to heighten public awareness on AHD and other issues that affect the youth today which are not limited to but including early marriage, maternal health, limiting access to education and employment, poverty, domestic violence and threat of Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI)/ Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
According to the Commission on Population (PopCom), the ADH program seeks to contribute to the improvement and promotion of the total well-being of young people by addressing issues related to adolescent and youth sexuality and reproductive health and rights.
Atsar is a local term for ‘lesson learned’ featuring Manay, a nurse who advocates teenage pregnancy prevention and HIV/AIDS awareness. Her story is an advocacy driven by her past experiences as a teenage mother who once suffered the consequences like financial crisis and depression. Manay’s struggles, as portrayed in the film, is just one representation of the current dilemma faced by the millennials.
In compliance with the guidelines, Atsar was based on the real life situation among the youth in the locality. Note that the Cordillera region has a very high record of teenage pregnancy, according to the University of the Philippines Population Institute.
The cast were students of the MPGCHS: Aubrey B. Baybay (lead actress), Limuel Brien F. Buenafe (lead actor), Josh Agsimet F. Fagyan (Agsimet), Erick Fulangen Jr. (supporting actor), Joylee Odchao D. Yango (supporting actress) and Marieta T. Kabluyen (mother). Meanwhile, the crew were in the person of: April Joi D. Awilan (director), Angeline A. Dogui-is (scriptwriter), Lyka Joy D. Gayodan (cinematographer), Halle Lineah G. Fesway (editor), Joie Deanne S. Toyokan (sound designer) and Marcs Stephen M. CastaÆeda (production designer).
According to Marilyn Sabiano, production supervisor, the efforts of the students made the short film materialize with the support of the municipality of Bontoc and Mountain Province. She hopes that the advocacy on AHD will be disseminated to the public also as a part of an Information and Education Campaign (IEC).
In support of the campaign, the PopCom seeks the initiative of the participating schools to organize awareness-raising activities on adolescent sexual and reproductive health issues especially on teenage pregnancy and STI and HIV/AIDS. This approach will help lessen the abovementioned risks while mobilizing the youth to take part in the promotion of their full development into adulthood. **Rose D. Dagupen-Mountain Province-PIO
