Divine Factory
Joseph Mangat
A factory for statues of Catholic saints in a city near Manila, portrayed as a microcosm of economic, social and religious conditions on the Philippines.
Divine Factory
Divine Factory
Joseph Mangat
International Competition 2022
Documentary Film
Philippines,
USA,
Taiwan
2022
120 minutes
Filipino
Subtitles:
English
When the time “when St. Joseph came” is mentioned in this film, it doesn’t refer to a religious phenomenon, but to the most popular product of TML Holy Crafts Incorporated. In the factory on the Philippines, the country with the third-largest Catholic population in the world, the employees manufacture statues of saints under exploitative conditions. Joseph Mangat portrays this place with a focus on the workers, including some from the LGBTQI community.
In the first scene, a plaster bust is uncovered layer by layer. This image could also serve to describe the approach of “Divine Factory”: From the shop to the workshop, from the entrepreneur to the simple worker, from the production to the uses made of the religious articles, this film reveals the social and economic facets of this institution. The Filipino director not only observes precisely how people work and trade there, he also involves the participants in frank conversations about love, wages and living conditions. The employees’ profit-oriented payment model reveals how economical and religious ideas interlock. The success of the company in the city of Antipolo near Manila, desirable for all, thus appears as nothing short of a divine blessing.
Credits
Director
Joseph Mangat
Cinematographer
Albert Banzon
Editor
Ilsa Malsi, Joseph Mangat
Producer
Alemberg Ang, Stefano Centini
Sound
Duu-Chih Tu
World Sales
Lya Li
Nominated for:
FIPRESCI Prize,
Prize of the Interreligious Jury
