Sunday Beauty Queen2016

Baby Ruth Villarama's documentary about a group of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong is an eye-opening portrait in the lives of our country's modern day heroes. Their story has been told countless of times (in print and screen) but what makes this documentary rather special is that it doesn't glorify solely the austere reality of their jobs, but this was also balanced into several things that makes them noble and their lives extraordinary. Villarama captured these moving details succinctly in a real, fashionable and amusing way without any derision but rather elevating them and their importance to the Philippines and to the entire world. Beautifully cinematographed by Dexter de la Pena, his low-angle shots of HK's high rise buildings never fails to take my breath away. The cohesiveness of each story, like it was taken out from a book, was made possible by its fluid and masterful editing by Chuck Gutierrez. Only a heart of stone will not be moved by the brilliance and the raw emotion encapsulated by this movie. Sunday Beauty Queen deserves to be seen, pondered, studied and appreciated because every single one of them - including the filmmakers - were Queens/Kings not just for one day but for every single day.