By: Mary Ofelyn Datuin

For Teresa being away from your newborn child is a difficult thing for a mother to bear and being hundreds of miles away in a different country makes everything even worse. But as a mother, one does what a mother does even if it's not her own child she cares for. Her warmth was felt amidst the cold atmosphere that is evident in a constantly arguing household. Teresa was gentle yet stern towards a rowdy boy that eventually softened whenever it comes to her. Little Andrew was naughty even to the kindest of persons, but like most people they find comfort even in the most unexpected people and who would have thought it would be towards his own nanny who does not speak a word of his native lnguage? Just the sole reality of how the two characters developed was touching in its own. 

In regards to Flor Contemplacion, we were able to see how not all families are alike. Because in Iloilo we could see that Teresa became a part of the family especially to Andrew and his father. They did not belittle her in fact they even questioned why she had to eat separately when they ate with the family of Andrew's mother. For Flor, she was accused and hanged and accepted the blame but for Teresa, Andrew's father came to explain what had happened when the mother saw the cigarette in  the toilet. She had someone to defend her, someone who was not present with Flor's story. To them she was important, to the point that Andrew even sacrificed his own chicken for the hope that his prayers would be heard so that she would stay with them. 

I cannot say I am someone who knows much about transgender people besides the fact that I
know they exist and are citizens of our country, but I guess that is why I have learned so much about them watching the documentary Transkings. We learn so much watching movies or reading about them in social media but we never get to really know what they had to go through in order to feel comfortable in their own skin. This documentary alone gave me answers to questions I knew no one to ask. Along with the forum that followed I could say I have learned about transgenders and have come to admire them, in a respectful manner, especially now that I have come to understand their emotions going through such a difficult part of their life. But what this documentary taught me the most is that of course you cannot please everybody so better yet, we should please ourselves wherein we would feel proud and have confidence in our own skin and live the life we wish to have.

Ang Nawawala was a film that captured me as a viewer when it came to its setting. The retro vibe of being stuck in the past when everyone was still happy, when the family was still together, when they were complete. That was evident alone with how the setting was designed. With Gibs, his clothes resembled those of what he wore when he was a kid; bowties, patterned shirts and the vests. From the smallest details we could see the state of the family still clinging onto the distant past more so that when Gibs' mother asked him during the flashback of who was he? "Sino ka?" that was only later answered at the very end of the film with the last words of: "It's me, ma. I'm Gibs. "