This year’s MMFF is certainly shaping up to be a memorable one. Between all the present controversies plaguing it, which can all be chalked up to growing pains, here comes a new one involving social drama entry Oro, and a dog that was killed as both part of the movie and as a plot point.
Even though a lot of people are up in arms about the issue of the dog, like many things, it’s just really not as black and white as people killing a dog. If you’re trying to find the truth in the middle of many different social media circles and their opinions, it can get pretty overwhelming. We’ve decided to lay out everything we know right and feel right now, and invite some sort of discussion so we can talk ourselves through it.
- First, we know a dog was killed, and people in more rural areas of the country eat dogs for sustenance. According to the official statement, it was part of the real-life story Oro was based on (and this is not a debate on whether it was right to include that part in the film). If you’re trying to deny that people eat dogs, then have we got some bad news for you—when you’re out there trying to survive, dogs are just as fair game as pigs, chickens, cows, and goats. They’re just part of livestock.
- Director Alvin Yapan is also right in saying that it wasn’t his place to tell people in the countryside to respect a dog’s rights and not eat it. If that’s how they survive, then how privileged are you to basically tell them they have to starve instead?
- Killing a dog is a crime, by the way. It’s in the law—and while there are exceptions, art isn’t one of them.
- The director is claiming that they didn’t kill a dog, but another report says that the director admitted they did kill a dog. Nobody is 100% sure of what’s actually true. PAWS is claiming that the dog was put in a sack and beaten to death, which isn’t a humane way of killing an animal for consumption.
- It probably matters how the scene was filmed. If the dog was killed because people outside of the film production were going to kill it and the crew just happened to shoot it in some sneaky fashion, then it’s slightly more excusable. If the dog really was killed for the movie’s sake, then that’s really terrible, and the crime is on the whole crew. This, however, is information we also don’t have.
- Lead actress Irma Adlawan (who won Best Actress), as well as a lot of other people, are expressing dismay over the fact that the dog became the issue and not the four miners who were killed in real life. To that we say it isn’t far-fetched to be affected by both issues. Yes, there should definitely be more awareness about the four men who died, but we also believe that doesn’t excuse a crime (again, if it was, based on the circumstances). Just causes don’t excuse wrongdoings, as we’ve all learned from this administration.
- There’s more to the story. Japo Parcero, an actress who was involved in the movie, steps forward and claims that two dogs actually died during the production of Oro in her harrowing tale shared on Facebook. Nobody is sure how true her story is, but it doesn’t seem like a story people would go to lengths to fabricate it.
It’s all a mess right now but we hope that helped you clear up your thoughts on the issue, if you’re like us and you don’t know what to think. Think we can all agree, though, that the poor dog didn’t deserve that. On a positive note, Mocha’s finally taken up to fighting for the MMFF, so at least there’s still some more good news coming out of this?