Legarda, Brillante Mendoza team up for climate change docu

Senator Loren Legarda has teamed up with internationally acclaimed director Brillante Mendoza to produce a 30-minute instructional documentary that hopes to educate Filipinos on how they can help mitigate the effects of climate change. Legarda said “Buhos" urges Filipinos to make a conscious effort to help prevent the negative effects of climate change. “Climate change makes a difference. I’ve seen how people die, I’ve seen how people cannot go back to their normal lives (because of this)," she told reporters after showing the film. In the documentary, Legarda, the narrator, explains global warming and the greenhouse effect. She also discusses the negative effects of climate change like the melting of icebergs, the El Niño phenomenon, threat to agriculture and food security, heat wave, and the spread of diseases. The senator also enumerates ways by which Filipinos can help mitigate the effects of climate change, like planting trees and stopping illegal logging and deforestation. The documentary features footage of the destruction caused by tropical cyclones Ondoy and Pepeng, which hit the country last year and left hundreds of people, mostly in the National Capital Region (NCR), dead. Legarda, who ran for vice president but lost in the May 10 elections, said this was not an attempt at melodrama. “I didn’t want it (documentary) to be moving, I want it to be instructional," she said. Inspired by Al Gore Legarda admitted that she got her inspiration from former US Vice President and celebrated environmental advocate Al Gore and his “An Inconvenient Truth" film, but said the content of her documentary is “very local." “Al Gore and the ‘Inconvenient Truth’ (were) an inspiration but as you can see, it (‘Buhos’) was very local," she said. She added that she is not at par with Gore, a Nobel Prize winner, in terms of achievements. “I don't want to consider myself as anything close to him. He’s a Nobel Prize winner. I'm just an advocate." She likewise said the idea to come up with a documentary came from Mendoza who, during his first meeting with the senator, asked Legarda why she was such an environmental advocate. After giving her explanation, Legarda said Mendoza, a best director winner in the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, asked her permission to follow her around and film her during her travels around the country since July of last year. She said the editing of the film wrapped up just last week. “What inspired me was the artistry of Brillante Mendoza (and the) images of Ondoy and Pepeng," Legarda said. Calling it a “labor of love," Legarda said the money spent on the film — around P1 million — came from her own pocket. The senator said she plans to show the film in select theaters and campuses nationwide. She also said they will be distributing copies of the documentary to those who are interested. Legarda was also the producer of the docu-drama “Ulan sa Tag-araw" and a children’s animation movie called “Ligtas Likas." - KBK, GMANews.TV