MANILA, Philippines - The Assumption Convent San Lorenzo High School Class 1979 will hold private screenings of the documentary The Learning on Aug. 14, Tuesday, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., at the Powerplant Cinema 6. Proceeds from the screenings will benefit the Assumption Mission Schools.
The Learning is a documentary that follows the journey of four Filipino teachers recruited to teach in Baltimore City’s Public Schools. The film chronicles their freshman year in America and the sacrifices they make as they try to maintain a long-distance relationship with their children and families, while beginning a new one with the mostly African-American students whose schooling is now entrusted to them. Those who have seen The Learning say it is an emotionally gripping documentary. “Only a stone will not shed tears,” sniffed a viewer.
These four teachers — Angel, Dorotea, Rhea and Grace — are the film’s central characters. Their story is at once intensely personal as each woman deals with the implications of her decision to come to the US, and fundamentally public, as they become part of the machinery of American education reform policy.
Ramona Diaz, whose film Imelda, a full-length documentary about former First Lady Imelda Marcos, garnered the Excellence in Cinematography Award for documentary at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and the ABC News Videosource Award from the IDA, is the film’s producer, director, writer and co-editor.
Diaz’s credits include Spirits Rising, an hour-long documentary about women’s role in the 1986 People Power Revolution in the Philippines. It received a Student Academy Award, the Ida Lupino Director’s Guild of America Award, a Golden Gate Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival, a Certificate of Merit from the International Documentary Association, and a Gold Apple from the National Educational Media Network.
She is on post-production on Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey, a feature-length documentary film about the iconic ‘80s band, Journey, and their new lead singer, Arnel Pineda.
(Proceeds from the screenings will benefit the Assumption Mission Schools. For ticket inquiries, call 0917-830-6883 (Makati), 0917-537-1103 (Pasig) or 0917-538-1920 (Alabang). Tickets are P500 each. Free seating.)