Filmmaker Statement

In Manila, devotion to basketball verges on sacred. Makeshift hoops stand at every street corner and images of NBA icons compete with images of Catholic saints for space on the walls. Over the course of 'Undas' (the Filipino Day of the Dead), two ballers from the city's tenements and cemetery slums will play for the pride of their respective communities. ANG RITWAL is about the power of communal rituals — sacred or profane — and their role in creating a sense of identity for those on society's fringes.