Kami no ko tachi

In 1995, the Philippine government decided to evacuate an enormous mountain of rubbish north of Manila known as Smoky Mountain. At the time, some 40.000 people were living there. Some of the mountain’s former residents moved to Quezon City to set up homes on another hill named Payatas in order to continue to make a living from recycling rubbish. The filming began at this hill on 2 July 2000.The next day, it began to rain and didn’t stop raining for a whole week. The constant rainfall caused a landslide on this vast rubbish tip which cost an estimated 1.000 people their lives. Five days later, the government also shut down this dump. A victory for the environment, one
might think. This film portrays the other side of the coin: it confronts us with the lives of the people for whom the closure of these refuse dumps has meant losing their only means of survival. (DOK.fest München)