Philippine Muslims on Screen: From Villains to Heroes

IntroductionMuslims constitute an estimated five per cent of the Philippines' 100 million population. Previously concentrated in the southern part of the country, they are now visible in most regions as a result of internal migration and conversions that have taken place since the 1970s. Southern Philippine Muslims are both an ethnic and religious minority who experienced discrimination and marginalization from colonial times and even under the independent Philippine government.Compared to other ethnic groups, Muslims have been the subjects of more films and yet, such films constitute only a very small part of Philippine cinema. The films1 included in this study are: Brides of Sulu (1934/1937), The Real Glory (1939) ), Badjao2 (1957), Perlas ng Silangan (Pearl of the Orient, 1969), Muslim Magnum .357 (1986), Mistah:3 Mga Mandirigma (Mistah: Warriors, 1994), Captive (2012) and Bagong Buwan (New Moon, 2001). In studying these films, I argue that representation of Philippine Muslims in films changed over time, and is affected by the prevailing government policies and people's perceptions of Muslim-Christian relations. The films will be discussed chronologically (dates released) and placed in the social and political contexts in which they were produced and viewed, from the American colonial era to the post independence period.The Philippine Muslims I am focusing on are the "Moros," born Muslims who trace their lineages to pre-colonial families in Mindanao and Sulu who are also identified with thirteen ethnic groups in the Philippines.4 The Spaniards called the Muslims "Moros" (Moors) in a derogatory way but in the course of the Muslim rebellion in the 1970s, members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) began to transcode (Hall 1997) the word to connote the courage, bravery and heroism of the Moros whose rich political and cultural heritage was not diluted by colonialism. Ethnic Muslims have now been using the term Moro for individuals and Bangsa Moro (Moro nation) for the collective (Angeles, 2010:48).Theoretical OrientationIn her work on religion and film, Margaret Miles notes that films arise in and respond to concrete historical circumstances while at the same time endeavor to make the viewers see what the director wants to communicate. Both director and viewer bring in their respective backgrounds including their social location, race and class in presenting a story on the one hand, and in interpreting the meanings being conveyed by the stories (Miles, 1996:11). As peoples belonging to ethnic groups bound by a single, albeit minority religion, Moros are depicted as the "other" who, as Plate says, exhibit characteristics that differ from the majority of the population. "Otherness is used to denote that which resides outside the margins of the dominant cultural representations, outside the social-symbolic order" (Plate 1999:4). Plate's "other" is Said's Orient (Said, 1978), upon whom the West exercises power and which is viewed in negative terms. The Orient is seen as barbaric, punitive, stagnant and inferior while the West is rational, dynamic, progressive and superior. Said notes how Islam and Muslims have been demonized by the West and he surveys Muslim representation in Orientalist literature. Such views of Muslims have continued on, and were in fact heightened after 9/11, with "terrorist" now added to characterizations of Muslims.This study is also guided by the works of Stuart Hall (1997) and of Jean and John Comaroff who studied Christianity and colonialism in Africa (Comaroff and Comaroff 1991, 2002). Although Hall had focused on language as one of the media through which thoughts, ideas and feelings are represented in culture (Hall 1997), I pay attention to both words and the moving image since they complement each other in the production of meaning. The Comaroffs' study is also relevant in the Philippine colonial setting as the colonizers imposed upon the colonized, in this case, the non-Muslim Filipinos, the primacy of their culture and education. …