The meaning of Christmas in a 5-minute film

Pagnanakaw, a film by millennials Miguel Sotto and Jaz Reyes that was a runner-up in the recent video contest held in Singtel Group’s markets across Asia, Africa and Australia, isn’t superficially about Christmas at all. Not at all.

It opens with the line, “We are not thieves.” Then it proceeds with the story of a minimum wage earner who ekes out a living in the wilderness that is Metro Manila. There is not a single Christmas tree in the film, not a bar of a Christmas carol is sung; instead it is studded with 300 seconds of the unvarnished daily struggle of a workingman. No bells and whistles there.

With dramatic flair, Miguel Sotto captures the journey of the worker as he (the worker) traverses roads and crosses “rivers” to the top of his everyday mountain — his source of livelihood. His source of “gold.”

And when he descends the mountain of his struggles at sunset, he brings home a modest harvest, day in and day out — tokwa (bean curd) just enough for himself and his father.

And then he rises again the next day, and heads for the “mountain” anew, with his father’s admonition that to take more than what his family needs is “stealing.”

* * *

In five minutes (the competition was titled, “The Five-minute Video Challenge: Connecting Lives”), Miguel and Jaz were able to hammer in a message that is as sharp as a concrete nail: by taking more than you need, you are actually taking what isn’t yours. You are taking the share of others away from them. You may be stronger, faster, richer, more cunning. But it is not a license to take more.

“Initially we were supposed to do another film with another story with two more members,” recalls Miguel, who trained at the New York Film Academy. “Due to time constraints, the other two backed out two weeks before the deadline, opting for another contest instead.”

Like the subject of his film, Miguel was willing to trek through soot and grime to get the film done. But he and Jaz had another obstacle even before their journey began.

“We didn’t have a story, but I remembered one Jaz told me during the first day we met. It was about a business student who had an immersion with an indigenous tribe, here in the Philippines. Every day, they’d wake up really early and hike for hours to get to this tree where they’d pick fruit for the rest of the tribe. Barely halfway through filling their baskets, the chief tells everyone to stop and head back down the mountain. They did this the whole week. By the end of his immersion, the student asked the chief why he didn’t just let everyone fill their baskets to the brim so they wouldn’t have to go through that hike every day. The chief then replied that taking more than what they need is stealing from the other tribes around the area that might not have gotten their share yet…”

Miguel was moved by that story of unspoilt selflessness.

“I found this very inspiring and appropriate to the contest’s theme of ‘Connecting Lives’ because by caring for those around you even if you don’t personally know them, you are in a way ‘connected’ to them,” shares Miguel, who is also a graduate of De La Salle University.

Miguel and his co-director Jaz chose the title Pagnanakaw because they wanted their viewers to encounter a twist down the road.

And that is exactly what they have achieved. For who will ever admit to stealing from others? But after watching the film, I began to question myself. How does one steal without prying open vaults and treasure chests?

How innocent is mankind of passive stealing?

Through Miguel and Jaz’s lens we see our soul: by wanting and taking much, we are diminishing the wealth that is there for all to share.

This Christmas, we should want less, so God’s other creatures will have more.

Sister Act

One of my first Christmas parties of the year was with my second mothers, the nuns of the Religious of the Assumption; and my fellow trustees in the Assumption Alumnae Association Board (AAA).

I have not seen so much “giving back” as I have from this group — and all the members of the alumnae association, which is celebrating its golden jubilee next year. The AAA has given the gift of education to thousands in the various Assumption mission schools, it has helped rebuild the Mother Rose Hall, build chapels, homes and schools in Yolanda-hit areas (particularly in the town of Mercedes in Eastern Samar). And it has helped its alumnae keep in touch with their spiritual core, their fidelity to duty, their “joyful detachment,” their noblesse oblige.

During the party, the AAA, headed by president Rose Lopez, presented check donations to the mission schools, to the Marie Eugenie Institute, the San Simon Assumption College, the Auxiliary Missionaries of the Assumption (AMA),  and the Assumption Education and Development Fund (AEDev). The AAA raised the funds through its successful golf tournament and bazaar events.

Many of the nuns who “partied” and played games with us during the Christmas party, held at the Azuthai on Pasay Road, have an encylopedic memory of the lives of their students.

A lot of them know the names of my sisters, their professions, and where abroad they reside now. One sister was recounting to her seatmate at the party that of alumnae Popsie and Malu Gamboa’s siblings, one went into law, while the rest are stars of the culinary world! I mean, whoa! Talking about knowing your students!

We were so happy to see Sisters Sheryl, Luz Emanuel, Carla, Regina Victoria, Isabel, Fe, Bernadette and Maitel, among others.

One of the nuns, Sister Maria Paz, I knew since my grade school days at the Assumption Iloilo. Of her parents’ 15 children, five became Jesuit priests and two became Assumption sisters.

In her closing remarks, Mother Provincial Sister Sheryl reminded us all that as we await the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day, we should remember that “Jesus always comes, is coming, will come into our lives.” Every day.

Christmas is merry, but every day is joyful with Christ in it.

(You may e-mail me at  [email protected].)