A research documentary by Dr. Jose S Buenconsejo to be premiered on December 12, 2022, 2:30 (Philippine Time) at The Videotheque of Cine Adarna in UP Diliman campus.
This documentary reflects on the life of a distinguished woman Ang Kapitana (The Captain) in the mountainous village of Bayabas, Upi Maguindanao. Through a socio-centric approach in rendering her biography, one can trace the connections of women’s activities to music, their role in ritual, and their sociability as members of a Teduray upland community.
Women’s work is highly valued in this world whose residents are centered on small-scale, but intensive agriculture. More than men, they make their own baskets made of materials from the environment and these, being “friendly objects,” remain an important means for transporting farm products to the markets and for containing ordinary things in their day to day existence as well as in the materialization of ritual performances. Women play vital roles in the preparation of these extraordinary events, especially in the harvest of first grains, music making, and in celebratory dances during weddings. It is not surprising therefore that music mimetically represents womanly activities, a number of pieces of which depict their enduring attachment as parents to their children, their gait, emotions, in short, actions in a social world.
Journal of Philippine Music 