Why it took four years to put Sunday Beauty Queen to can

Of the eight official entries (all indies) in the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) which kicks off on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, and lasts until Jan. 3, 2017 (back to its original 10-day stint), the docu-drama Sunday Beauty Queen (SBQ) easily wins my nod as the first-to-be-watched on my list because of a sentimental reason.

The film directed by Babyruth Villarama-Gutierrez tackles a subject close to my heart. SBQ, which took all of four years to put to can, follows the real-life stories of Hazel Perdido, Mylyn Jacobo, Cherry Bretania, Leo Selomenio and Rudelle Acosta, five of the thousands of OFWs in Hong Kong working as domestic helpers. Every Sunday, these maids transform themselves into dazzling beauty queens, entertaining their fellow Filipinos and raising funds for distressed OFWs in need of help.

My cousin, a midwife, worked as a household help for many years and she was lucky to have a kind and generous boss who, even after my cousin has finished her contract, would invite her to Hong Kong to look after the children who look to her as a surrogate mother. She has seen those children grow up and every time the parents would go abroad (the husband is an executive in a multi-national company), they would ask my cousin to fly posthaste to Hong Kong to keep the children company. On several occasions, they would take her on trips to the US and Europe, treating her as a member of the family.

Before graduating with a Journalism degree from UST (“I’m a millennial graduate,” she emphasized, “in 2000”), Babyruth had her OJT (On the Job Training) at Reuters Manila for six months (more than the 200 required hours) and then worked as writer/researcher (segment producer) for six years at ABS-CBN.

“That’s how I got interested in doing documentaries,” Babyruth told Funfare in an exclusive interview. “I wanted to go deeper into the stories that we were covering. When the opportunity came to work for National Geographic, they asked me to do a research among the remaining survivors of the Doña Paz tragedy (about the overloaded ship that sank during the Christmas season almost three decades ago).”

During a visit to Hong Kong, Babyruth recalled that she was intrigued by the number of OFWs there, numbering more than 300,000, many of them would participate in a beauty contest as part of the activities of the Independence Day celebration.

“Wow,” I said, “very interesting! It has become a way of life for them away from work. My initial hunch was that it was their way of escaping reality. It took me four years to follow not just the beauty contests but the OFWs’ way of life in Hong Kong. We followed the characters in the documentary and their employers were cooperative in giving interviews.”

The pageant is usually held during the OFWs’ day-off on weekends, thus the title Sunday Beauty Queen. The winners (above and below) enjoy their reign as other beauty queens do.

According to Babyruth, what differentiates SBQ from other documentaries is that SBQ looks into two cultures, and how they are able to live together as masters and household helps, how “modern slavery” is defined at this time.

“Some people brand OFWs as ‘modern slaves’ but actually they are part of the economic system of the country,” explained Babyruth. “OFWs in a way help Hong Kong economy in the sense that they allow Hong Kong families to go to work and leave them (OFWs) to manage the house and take care of the children. So the OFWs contribution to the Hong Kong economy is so big pala.”

It’s a big “first” in the history of the MMFF to include a documentary among the so-called Magic 8 official entries.

“The inclusion of this heartwarming reality film could never be more perfect,” said Babyruth who is ever grateful that SBQ got the screening committee’s nod from among more than 27 films submitted for consideration. The MMFF  Selection Committee cited the film as “a precious (documentary), well-researched, well-crafted, insightful and engaging” and possessed “as much power as a feature film to movie audiences.”

“There are no stars in our film,” said Babyruth, not the way we know what “stars” are anyway. “The stars in our film are the OFWs that reign as beauty queens,” referred to as “Sunday Beauty Queens” because the pageant is usually held on weekends during their day-off.

“Christmas is for the family and we feel that this is the kind of movie that everyone in the family would truly appreciate,” assured Babyruth, “mula kay lola hanggang kay bunso, pati si yaya. There is something in SBQ that would touch the lives of every Filipino.”

Rated-G (General Patronage) by the MTRCB (Movies and Television Review and Classification Board) and graded-A by CEB (Cinema Evaluation Board), SBQ is endorsed and fully supported by various government agencies such as the Department of Education, National Youth Commission and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP). It is produced by Voyage Studios and TBA (Tuko Film, Productions, Buchi Boy Entertainment, Artikulo Uno Productions), the same team behind Heneral Luna, last year’s surprise box-office and critical hit.

So what did Babyruth learn from doing SBQ?

“I learned that wherever you put them, Filipinos are empowered people,” noted Babyruth. “They can survive no matter how difficult the conditions are. They have this infectious smile that can light up your day and that says, ‘Hey, it’s okay!’ They have that spirit. The Filipino spirit is beyond any struggle. They can conquer loneliness living and working away from their families back home.”

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