Every day, since COVID-19 became a full-blown pandemic, our medical frontliners choose to confront an invisible and treacherous enemy despite the danger to their lives.
Given a rare opportunity to record at the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI), I've come out with this 7-minute film, showing what our frontliners have to go through each day – what goes on in their minds, and what bigger problems we have to face as a nation.
I was able to enter the "war zone," and this experience has made me realize the gravity of the situation. Everyone looks almost the same. Faceless. Genderless. The frontliners busily move in and out of tents, attending to patients, going over cases. (READ: Coronavirus-positive medical frontliners now at 1,101 – DOH)
My lockdown series aims to bring viewers as close as possible to the reality that nobody sees. In a previous episode, “Drayber,” a big family cramped in a 6x6 room which serves as their sala, dining room, and bedroom, is documented making sure they are safe indoors in time for the 8 pm curfew. In another episode, I interviewed people walking to and from work outside of Quezon City during the lockdown.
This is my tribute to our medical frontliners, who risk their own lives every day to save as many other lives as they can during this COVID-19 pandemic. – Rappler.com
Malu Maniquis has been making documentaries since 2000 for various local and international agencies and NGOs; as well as producing on her own. She is the founder and coordinator of Free the Artist Movement (FAM).