Vivants chez les morts (Living among the Dead)

by Jérôme Bouyer

Philippines, France

Director: Jérôme Bouyer

Assistant Director: Ligaya del Fierro

Editor: Nicolas Le Du, Véronique Flipot

Sound: Reynaldo Jacinto

Sound mix: Eric Rey

Music: Andrew

Production: France 5, Little Bear

Contact:
Little Bear
7-9 rue Arthur Groussier
75010 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1.42.38.06.55
Fax: 0033 1.42.45.00.33
Mail: [email protected]

Year: 2002

Beta SP, Colour, 52 min
OV Tagalog with French Subtitles

Unreleased

Five hundred people are living among the tombs in the Malaki cemetery, surrounded by the skyscrapers of Manila lively business centre, in the Philippines. Shipwrecked from development and rejected from success, these squatters of misery are surviving in the rural calm on the dead. The cemetery, traditionally a ground for the dead, has now become a ground for the living. People are listening to music, looking at tv, cooking their meals, sleeping ; children are playing, the living next to the dead. One single compulsory requirement : the owners of the tombs must agree, and of course one must behave according to the law.

" We feel good in the cemetery. You know it is not the dead we fear, but the people who are alive. " says a resident. With great sensitivity and decency, Jérôme Bouyer depicts this community where life wins over death.