REEL TIME PRESENTS: DAPITHAPON

Format: Documentary

Network: GMA NEWS TV CHANNEL 11

First airing: May 29, 2011

DAPITHAPON is a somber, poignant look at society's forgotten citizens-its elderly. Literally meaning "twilight" in English, DAPITHAPON examines some of the people living in an unforgiving city as they go about spending the rest of their twilight years.

There's a woman who raises her grandkids despite her old age; as a sidewalk vendor and an urban dweller with only the cold pavement to call her home, we can see how brave this woman is, and how depressing today's society has become, with seemingly no regard for its urban poor.

Another grandmother lives with only her cats, and rummages through garbage to get by.

In a home for the aged, a woman with Stage 4 Breast Cancer tells her grim tale; another silently awaits her passing into the other side; a man awaits the coming of his youngest child, and; a woman seeks to see her son once again despite being battered by her own flesh and blood.

A social worker provides explanations on most of the social issues that DAPITHAPON touches upon. The words and imagery are razor sharp. Just how painful is it to watch a person die and not have family members by her side at her moment of departure? Very.

The shots and lighting are slow and vivid. The colors are melancholic. The music heightens the faint mood of the subject, though occasionally repetitive and may even be condescending. Nevertheless the message gets across. 

Several moments in this documentary I felt like I was lost inside an Adolf Alix movie, what with all the tracking shots and fade to black. Surprisingly the most beautiful moments are those where  no dialogue occurs, yet I am against the abrupt cutting in between scenes. DAPITHAPON can use just a little bit more polishing in editing. 

I liked the concept; I liked the treatment; I liked the execution. What I didn't like was the ambiguous fate of the woman leaving the home for the aged. Where is she going? And what becomes of the other subjects? The documentary does not answer these. What then can we do now that we are told of these people's plight?