Anti-drug body taps local filmmakers
Davao City (11 October) -- The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has tapped the creative potentials of local filmmakers in the fight against illegal drugs by partnering with the Guerilla Filmmaking group during the celebration of the national anti-drug week which will be held in the third week of November.
PDEA will be sponsoring the inter-collegiate documentary filmmaking competition, in which filmmaking teams from different colleges in Davao City will produce documentary films that will revolve around their perspectives of the drug menace in the city.
Police Supt. Wilkins Villanueva, Regional Director PDEA XI said that they thought of tapping the filmmaking community as a tools to raise awareness against the menace of illegal drugs.
P/Supt. Villanueva said that PDEA has been active in the aspect of preventive education in the control and prevention of illegal drug use and that the film documentaries is a new approach which has never been done before.
Dax Caņedo, organizer of the Guerilla Filmmaking Workshops and of the intercollegiate documentary competitions said that the PDEA partnership is a sign that filmmaking can be used as a tool for raising awareness and educating the people about issues and problems affecting the community, in PDEA's case the drug problem in the community and in the country.
Caņedo said that the Intercollegiate competition which is in its third year is being participated usually by mass communication students of the participating schools, the past themes were about Mindanao Filmmaking as the competitions is an integral part of the festivities of Mindanao's only filmmaking festival.
With its drug theme, participants must be able produce and finish their documentaries before November 13. Their entries will be shown on the culmination of the Drug Week Celebration, which is on November 17.
Top PDEA officials to be led by Dangerous Drugs Board Chairperson Sec. Anselmo Avenido and PDEA Director-General Undersecretary Dionisio Santiago along with top Davao City officials will judge the students' documentaries. Awarding ceremonies will be held on Dec.10 during the Mindanao Film Festival awards night. Winning teams will receive plaques and cash prizes courtesy of PDEA.
Supt. Villanueva said that the documentaries would also be shown to other regions as part of their preventive education campaign, he said that the students' works will be given "national exposure." This is a novel approach I hope that the colleges and schools here in Davao City will join in this activity, He said. (PIA XI/RG Alama) [top]
