Adlaw sa mga Mananagat (Fisherfolks Day) (2022) by Martha Atienza captures a community in a moment of collective presence, celebration, and reflection. Slowed to a meditative rhythm, the work follows a parade of brightly decorated fishing boats as they move across the waters of Bantayan group of Islands in the Visayan Sea, where Atienza lives and works. The silent, sow-motion film lends a solemn atmosphere, imbued with gravitas and pathos, transforming a local festivity into a poetic meditation on resilience, memory, and collective strength.

Bantayan’s Fisherfolks Day is part of Atienza’s long-term, collaborative initiative GOODLand, and while the video work documents this inaugural activity, it also exposes the work of the wider GOODLand project that brings together creatives, government officials, fisherfolks, farmers, and local communities to address environmental and social challenges in Bantayan. The project highlights issues such as marine conservation, fisherfolk rights, and sustainable livelihoods recognising that for decades, fishing communities on the islands have faced the pressures of privatization, tourism development, and government-endorsed commercial interests, often resulting in forced relocations and marginalization. Atienza’s work emphasizes remembrance as a form of resistance, documenting how local voices can assert themselves against coercive neoliberal agendas.

Adlaw sa mga Mananagat is part of a trio of video works including Sugdan Ko (2021) and Way pag Otro (2022), produced over several years, illustrating how community organizing can influence policy. Through GOODLand, Atienza and her collaborators have advocated for the establishment of a Marine Protected Area in Mambacayao Dako and the creation of an official Fisherfolks Day turned into Fisherfolks week, empowering Bantayanons to participate in decisions affecting their islands. The work celebrates the persistence of these communities, demonstrating that collective action can protect cultural heritage, sustain ecological balance, and resist systemic dispossession. The films affective charge, through its deliberate pacing and quiet attention to detail, transforms public ritual into a visual elegy, honouring the resilience, determination, and enduring spirit of a community whose memory and labour insist on recognition and respect.