Short Film on Poverty Touched Millions of Viewers

The short film “Chicken a la Carte” by Ferdinand Dimadura, was made in 2005, beat some 3,600 entries when it won the 56th Berlin film festival award for short films in 2006.

More than 12 million viewers (as of November 25, today, 12,602,473 on http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte aside from Youtube) have seen the documentary shot in Naga city by the Bicolano filmmaker. It is a story of people scavenging for food in order to survive.

With a background Dimadura himself composed and sang, the film delivers its final message:

Let me tell their story / That no one else can hear
How can someone’s laughter / Bring me close to tears
And you’ll never know / ‘Cause you’re never there
After what we’ve seen / Can we close our eyes again?
Let me tell their story / You won’t think is true
I have not forgotten / So I’m sharing it with you
For all the things we know / What have we really learned?
Though I close my eyes / The images remain
And their story begins again.

Earlier this month, Dimadura was a guest director at the “Slow Motion” film festival in Nova Scotia, Canada. Chicken a la Carte and another of his short films, “Binamban- the food of Lagonoy,” had a gala screening at the festival. Binamban also won in the Slow Food Short film competition in Torino, Italy, in 2006. He beat 400 other entries.

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