Guest post by Aly Suico
Kristine Camille “KC” Sulit is a communication, film, and multimedia instructor at Mapua University, CIIT College of Arts and Technology, and iAcademy in Manila, Philippines. She was Deputy Film Festival Director at the 2018 Quezon City International Pink Film Festival. As a filmmaker, she became a delegate for Platform Busan at the 2022 Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. Her latest short film, Read-only Memory (co-directed with David R. Corpuz), won 1st place in the Experimental Category of the 34th Gawad Alternatibo.
Her co-director, JV Sangalang, pursued a career in media and journalism after attending an introductory filmmaking workshop in 2015. As a member of the urban poor group KADAMAY, he ensures his work embodies his activist ideals and goals.
Filmmakers KC and JV produced their short film Nanay through EngageMedia’s Tech Tales Youth program. KC weighs in on some of her reflections on leading the impact distribution campaign for Nanay.
On grounding stories of impact
A day doesn’t go by when a new story of someone getting scammed makes its rounds in friend circles and social media. The schemes are getting more sophisticated, organised, and elusive with each story. The marginalised sectors, especially non-digital natives such as the elderly, remain one of the most vulnerable to these new forms of crime and are literally and figuratively left to their own devices on how to deal with these scams.
It’s one thing to read about someone else’s experience and another to experience it. Without proper channels to voice their issues and prompt, effective action, individuals turn to social media with little optimism beyond their stories going viral, hoping that others will avoid similar mistakes. This lack of accountability on tech platforms, particularly in the Philippines, has left citizens more frustrated following the recent passage of the SIM Card Registration Law meant to monitor and reduce these types of scams.
Despite efforts by individuals to warn others via social media, sharing stories of being scammed should be accompanied by actions taken offline to increase the impact of these posts. This was the context for KC and JV when they created their short film Nanay. Based on JV’s grandmother’s experience, the two turned her story into an impactful film. Their goal is to visually depict the experience of being scammed through film and transform the stories people hear and discuss into a tangible digital literacy tool for their chosen target demographic.
On playing to your strengths
It is advantageous for filmmakers to be deeply involved in the target community even before they start production. This helps ensure that the film’s objectives and goals align with the context and needs of the community. JV is an active member of the people’s organisation KADAMAY (Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap), which gives him firsthand insight into the stories and culture of the urban poor in Manila, Philippines. In addition to drawing from his grandmother’s personal experience, JV contextualised the story within the urban poor setting, ensuring it resonated with the community’s culture.
“Producing films with an impact has now become KC’s default way of
making films, bringing impact into every film from here on in.
She attests to the value impact filmmaking has in building solidarity with people’s struggles, as seen in her experience with the mothers of KADAMAY and the senior citizens in Caloocan.”
From pinpointing their target communities’ baseline understanding of digital rights, KC collaborated with the Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU) to help her with introductory materials on digital rights that she could repurpose in the context of senior citizens and the urban poor. Through the 2023 Digital Rights Asia-Pacific Assembly (DRAPAC) in Thailand, where the Tech Tales Youth filmmakers participated, KC and CPU made an actual connection concerning digital rights and impact filmmaking.
CPU has pre-made modules on digital rights that are ready to be used. It was simply a matter of providing them to the communities. Through Nanay and KC’s impact campaign, all CPU had to do was give these modules to KC, along with additional resources for further study. These modules served as the basis for her short presentation on digital rights, which served as the starting point for the impact screening discussions. KC’s background in teaching improved the flow of the discussions, enabling her to pick up many valuable suggestions and adjust the program flow according to the target audience.
Publicity materials released by KC Sulit and JV Sangalang to promote their impact activities.
On learning from the audience
Nanay had three impact screenings with three different audience groups. On February 20, 2024, it screened with three other Filipino-made Tech Tales films for the urban poor people’s organization, KADAMAY. Approximately 50 mothers and grandmothers from the community attended the screening, bringing their young children. Faced with this unexpected audience mix, KC and JV quickly adjusted their focus group discussion to engage both the mothers and the kids separately, ensuring the mothers’ full participation while accommodating the young audience. They also took the opportunity to introduce the kids to digital rights.
In one of the early screenings, KC and JV aimed to learn more about the behaviours and expectations of their target communities as viewers. This understanding would help them develop better programming and design for future screenings. The mothers were reserved during the discussion, prompting JV to adjust the questions to elicit more detailed responses. This emphasised the importance of listening to on-ground experiences and asking questions relevant to the personal lives of urban poor mothers rather than using generic questions. One mother shared her realisation of experiencing similar red flags, not knowing she was being scammed. From KC’s observations, the stories of how the audiences related to the film were there. The discussion needed to be well facilitated to get these stories out onto the platform they provided and shared with the group.
The children in the audience were actively engaged and able to grasp the importance of digital security through the films from the Tech Tales Youth program. They understood the risks of sharing personal information online.
On April 27, 2024, KC screened a film for a group of senior citizens in Caloocan City. Forty members of the Senior Citizens Association of Soldier Hills 3 showed up early and were enthusiastic about having a film screening in their community. The event sparked discussions about scams happening within their community and sharing tips and tricks with each other.
One person shared a story about a scam that happened before digital scams became common. They had a pen pal who was a soldier serving in the Middle East. The pen pal asked for their full account details, claiming that he needed the information to send “something.” This made the person feel uneasy, so they decided to stop communicating with the soldier altogether.
A former bank vice president contributed to the discussion about recognising signs of a scam. He shared a tip that banks typically do not initiate calls regarding personal credit card issues. Instead, it is usually the client who contacts the bank first. Therefore, if someone claiming to be a bank representative calls and asks to discuss credit card details, it could be a red flag for a phishing attempt.
These were valuable insights KC picked up on, assuring her of the importance of involving those in the margins in the conversation on digital rights because senior citizens had their share of scams, which may be different in form but exactly the same in principle.
The senior citizens were delighted with the event and wanted more. They hoped that next time, there would be popcorn and action films. The energy and enthusiasm of this particular group made KC realise the importance of reaching out to different audiences instead of waiting for them to come. When interacting with the senior citizens, KC observed a few things about this specific audience:
- Many were unfamiliar with short films, as they were more accustomed to full-length films from their time.
- Educating the seniors about digital rights was easy, as many took notes during the discussion and requested a presentation copy.
- The senior citizens showed an openness and willingness to try new things and learn.
They were receptive to new formats, such as short films, and were enthusiastic about learning and sharing information about digital technology and new terms. These experiences highlighted the importance of bringing these opportunities closer to the senior citizens.
Senior citizens from Soldiers Hills, Caloocan City posing for a photo after the screening of Tech Tales Youth films.
On May 3, 2024, Nanay’s final impact screening took place at CIIT College of Arts and Technology. This event was held at KC’s home turf, and the audience consisted of about 30 film and media students, primarily digital natives. In this context, KC steered the impact discussion towards digital rights, emphasising their role in starting conversations about digital rights with their older family members. KC also focused the discussion on impact film production, as they knew the students were primarily interested in the film process.
Many were introduced to impact film production and distribution for the first time. The students’ interests varied from the story’s inspiration to funding for impact film. As their teacher, KC guided her students through impact filmmaking, emphasising the need for future filmmakers to be deliberate in their work. She stressed going beyond a good story and considering the impact by identifying its purpose, target audience, and post-production trajectory of the film.
On sustaining the impact
With stories of scams and digital fraud mainly circulating on social media, KC and JV created a Facebook page, #HelpYourNanay, as a bulletin board for Nanay’s upcoming screenings and doubled as a social media campaign on digital rights. They plan to sustain the digital campaign by releasing more infographic materials and sharing news and updates on the latest scams in the Philippines.
Producing films with an impact has now become KC’s default way of making films, bringing impact into every film from here on in. She attests to the value impact filmmaking has in building solidarity with people’s struggles, as seen in her experience with the mothers of KADAMAY and the senior citizens in Caloocan. From her time in Thailand to screening in the communities, she feels her impact journey has come full circle and hopes to replicate a similar process in the following projects she takes on.
In creating a film that lightly but deeply tackles community issues like digital rights, KC recommends watching Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing (1989) and reading up on the many articles and social media posts on the latest digital scams to stay alert and updated on the latest scam trends.
