GOlden GLobes
Filmmaker Kent Donguines Explores Tattooing as a Political Statement in “Treasure of the Rice Terraces”
By Janet Susan R. Nepales
May 1, 2023
Kent Donguines, a Filipino Canadian filmmaker, has always been fascinated by tattoos. He proudly shows us, during a Zoom interview, the many tattoos he got, including the ones he received from 106-year-old famed tattoo guru or mambabatok, Apo Whang-Od – who lives in the remote village of Buscalan, in the municipality of Tinglayan, Kalinga, Philippines.
Apo Whang-Od recently made history when she was featured on the cover of Vogue Philippines and became the oldest person the magazine has given that honor. Halle Berry (“Now, THIS is real beauty.”) and other talents praised the groundbreaking cover subject.
The legendary Apo Whang-Od and her descendants are the subjects of Donguines’ upcoming documentary Treasure of the Rice Terraces, which explores the use of traditional tattoos from symbols of beauty and bravery, their stigma of being associated with gangs and criminals, to their current use as political statements.
Donguines, whose parents hail from Kalibo, Aklan, is the first Filipino Canadian filmmaker to travel to Buscalan, a secluded mountain community in Tinglayan, Kalinga, Philippines to find the legendary tattoo artist Apo Whang-Od.
Born in 1918, Apo Whang-Od practices the traditional way of tattooing, which is using a bamboo stick, an orange thorn needle, a short stick, a coconut mixing bowl and soot from her all-natural fireplace. She mixes everything with water to create ink inside the coconut mixing bowl. She then dips a blade of grass into the ink to create a pattern on your skin. The process might take 30 minutes or two hours, depending on how small, big, or complicated the design is.
The film explores how this old practice, once banned and despised in Philippine society, has now evolved into a chic and in-demand type of body art that has become a source of pride for many Filipinos, both at home and abroad.
EXCERPT FROM Q&A
You have two projects, the Four Four and the documentary Canadian Adobo. Can you tell us about those?
I am in prep for both of those films, as I am in post for Treasure. Canadian Adobo is a spinoff of my first short documentary, called Kalinga. When I did Kalinga, it was about Filipino caregivers and nannies and how their stories helped me understand what my mom had to go through when she left me at a young age to become a caregiver.
And Canadian Adobo is a spinoff of that. Now I want to tell stories of the kids of Filipino caregivers and nannies, and really talk about what their experiences were when their parents left them. I want to allow them to have that closure with their parents, as well as finally open up and talk about these sensitive topics.
Four Four, on the other hand, is a film about a Filipino fast-food worker who is also a hip-hop dancer and is trying to find his place in Canada as a new immigrant. In an attempt to find his community, he auditions for Philippine folk dance troupes. So, it’s a little bit of the intensity of Whiplash meets the visual and psychological treatment of Black Swan, but with Philippine folk dance being featured.
