To register for the event, click UPAA-W AMAVOH Event
Thirty (30) minutes before the show, you will receive via email your viewing link and Q &A webinar details. For further inquiries and questions, please email valueourheritageUPAAW@gmail.com
About the Film
Living in a remote corner of the Philippine islands, Agustin is a tribesman who loves to sing but never had the opportunity to learn to read or write. When his boss cheats him out of his wages seemingly for the thousandth time, 40-year old Agustin decides to enroll in grade one.
Over the next six years, however, Agustin becomes increasingly torn between two realities – the children’s world in school, and the increasingly harsh reality of the world outside. As the needs of his family mount, and as food and money become increasingly scarce, Agustin must decide whether to continue his own quest for self-improvement – or pass the opportunity on to his son.
Filmed and told in an immersive style, the film invites the audience to hope and dream with Agustin, and to understand the harsh reality that makes his optimism — and the optimism of many indigenous in his situation — ultimately so fragile.
About the Filmmaker
After graduating from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Film, Grace Pimentel Simbulan received a grant from the European Union as part of their project entitled “In Defense of Land and Life: Addressing Human Rights Concerns of Indigenous Peoples in Resource Conflict Areas” to produce a mid-length documentary film. As a follow-up to this project, she immersed herself in the same community for more than eight years while producing the feature-length documentary film A is for Agustin.
The experience and knowledge she obtained through her years in the indigenous community became her driving force in pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where her research focuses on the various forces affecting indigenous groups in Southeast Asia.