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Manila's 'baby factory' featured in Sundance documentary

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Jared Bray, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="350" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vP6X1wBePas " width="600"></iframe></figure>PARK CITY, UTAH - Filipino filmmaker Ramona Diaz&#x27;s newest documentary, “Motherland,” is being screened at the Sundance Film Festival this week.The film uniquely spotlights the strength and endurance of Filipino mothers.“Motherland” is appropriately about mothers, their struggles and strengths, their humor and hopefulness.“They’re very impoverished, marginalized women. But they’re strong, funny, sexual-body, sassy women, and I’ll always remember them,” said director Diaz.The documentary takes place in the heart of Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital, in Metro Manila, home to one of the busiest maternity wards in world.Day in and day out, routines repeat themselves: pregnant women arrive, mothers with babies leave.This so-called “baby factory” averages 60 births per day, and sometimes one every 12 minutes.“It’s a public hospital, and really the last resort for very impoverished women,” Diaz said.She added that the inspiration for “Motherland” came in 2011, while investigating the Philippines’ heavily debated Reproductive Health Bill.“In the process of researching that bill and making a film about that, I discovered this hospital. And this hospital gave me everything I wanted, and I was really overwhelmed and amazed by the space.”Diaz believes “Motherland” shows how important it is to implement the country’s Reproductive Health Law.But she said her ultimate goal with the film is “to give you and show you an experience that you would otherwise not experience and people you would otherwise not meet, and hopefully feel a kinship toward the characters on the screen.”After &quot;Motherland&quot; makes its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival this month in Park City, Diaz hopes to take her film to other parts of the world.Read more on <a href="http://www.balitangamerica.tv">Balitang America</a>.

Filipino filmmaker Ramona Diaz's newest documentary, "Motherland," is being screened at the Sundance Film Festival this week.

Filipino filmmaker Ramona Diaz's newest documentary, "Motherland," is being screened at the Sundance Film Festival this week.

Manila's 'baby factory' featured in Sundance documentary

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Manila's 'baby factory' featured in Sundance documentary

Jared Bray,

ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

Published Jan 27, 2017 08:10 PM PHT

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Updated Jan 27, 2017 09:37 PM PHT

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sundance

Ramona Diaz

filmmaker

Motherland

Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital

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