SMALL VOICES

Only a teacher. That's what Melinda Santiago keeps hearing about herself after the idealistic young Filipina forsakes moving to the United States to earn a quick buck like the rest of her family, opting instead to draw an unsteady paycheck by working at rustic Mallawig Elementary School. Here in the provincial jungles, rain soaks through the partially ruined schoolhouse roofs, drenching lesson plans and papers, and the best preserved textbooks are only brought out when the superintendent drops by during bureaucratic inspections. Moreover, an overwhelming number of children hail from serf-like, semi-literate farm families, where education is viewed as a frivolity compared to field toil. At home the kids are told that careers and aspirations are only for the rich, while at class even their own jaded instructors utilize the students for casual labor (and make a slight side income by selling kids junk food on commission). Melinda, who has inherited her late father's gift for music, vows she'll be different, as she defies her defeatist headmistress and scornful parents to enter Mallawig in a city choral competition. A victory there would not only gain funds for the school but prove to these sons and daughters of poverty how even they can afford to hope. By the finale of this gentle and dream-affirming feature, “only a teacher” seems quite a contradiction. (In Tagalog with English subtitles)