11th Gawad Urian on May 17

The 11th Gawad Urian will be held on May 17 at the Marriott Hotel. The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) will sponsor the awards presentation — to be covered for television by Cinema One.

Any day now, the members of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino will release its list of nominees. Aside from the regular categories, the critics’ group also plans to select the year’s Best Documentary since there were a lot of docus that were produced last year. The Manunuri, however, is still in the process of collating copies of documentaries that will compete in this category to be given for the first time since the group was formed in 1976.

Below is a review of one docu that may be in the running for this year’s Gawad Urian.

Although the United States seems to be losing its grip as a superpower, its influence on Filipinos will be felt for many, many more generations. Officially, we were under them for only 50 years, but did they really let go after they supposedly granted us independence?

Before and even after martial law, political activists had shouted every conceivable anti-imperialist slogan in front of the US Embassy in Manila. From time to time I think there are still rallies held there, but rarely.

The American colonization of the Philippines surely had both good and bad effects. They gave us education and literacy. As for the bad, let’s just say that no strong nation should bully and meddle in the affairs of a weaker country. Yes, there were ill effects on us — during and even after their colonial rule.

But undeniably, American influence is here to stay. Despite the Korean invasion of the Philippines, we still look up to America as our inspiration for film, fashion and music. Anyone with Caucasian looks is called Kano. Behind their back, most Pinoys after the war called them Canuto. (There was a King Canute, one of those Danish invaders who ruled England and is best remembered for telling the nobles of his court that no leader could be more powerful than God.)

Kano (An American and His Harem) is the title of a documentary film by Monster Jimenez. It follows the case of Vietnam War veteran Victor Pearson, who maintained a compound in the island of Negros where he kept women who all became his wives.

Jimenez went all the way to Pearson’s native Oregon to talk to his family for a background check that revealed a lot about what became of his behavior as an adult. Easily, his defiance of social norms could be blamed on his having been shell-shocked in Vietnam in the ’60s.

His siblings, however, suspect that their stepfather could have molested him as a kid, but they are not sure about that. One thing definite though: They grew up in an unhealthy environment. Step-dad would give them money to beat up each other until they were all bloodied up. Even the pet dog was not spared from the cruelty of the stepfather.

When Pearson was discharged from the US Army in the mid-’60s, he decided to settle in the Philippines where his pension (in dollars) could go a long way. He walked around and looked for a local girl who was willing to marry him. In a matter of hours, he had a bride and settled in a remote town in Negros where the cost of living is cheaper compared to the city.

It was there where he had wife after wife and maintained them at the same time. Some of the women were friends. There were cousins. Even sisters. They all agreed to that kind of a set-up since Pearson gave them food, clothing and shelter. If they needed extra money to send to their respective families, they only had to cuddle up to him and be extra amorous for a night.

Of course, not all of his women could qualify for a Miss Western Visayas title — as one of the prettier ones pointed out — but that is beside the point. The women were still exploited.

Since some of the girls asked for marriage, he made a mockery out of Islam laws by converting to Muslim even if the women admitted to never practising the religion: They still ate pork!

Early in the millennium, Pearson hit the headlines when he was charged for several counts of rape. Oddly enough, the parents of one of the girls discouraged their daughter from filing charges against Pearson since they believed that their daughter — a minor — was never touched by the accused. But as both father and mother admitted, the American promised to help them rebuild their house if the girl would withdraw the charges against him.

Pearson was eventually convicted and is spending time in prison in Manila. Jimenez had conscientiously documented everything there is to know about the case. It is a very informative docu and insightful, too, without the director passing judgment on the characters involved in this real-life story. All sides are made to speak. And so we hear a lot of the women insisting that in spite of everything Pearson had been a good and kind man to them. But as you listen to each one, there are disturbing thoughts that haunt us as a race.         

It is the viewer who will conclude that there is nothing like desperation to lead us away from the moral compass. There is a Tagalog term for it: Kapit sa patalim. We are a poor nation and poverty clouds our vision to distinguish right from wrong.

Is it our fault that we became this way? Whatever had become of us surely could be traced to all these years of colonization — with the Kano being one of the most influential of the foreign invaders who exploited our land and people.