Close to Heaven

Close to Heaven

Close to Heaven The Rice Terraces of the Philippines

Documentary // NDR / ARTE 2015 / 45 min., HD

Over 2,000 years ago, the Ifugao mountain people began building a unique natural landscape: the world-famous rice terraces in the Philippine Cordilleras. However, working up high in the fields is arduous and brings little in the way of financial rewards. Many of the younger Ifugao no longer wish to pursue this back-breaking way of life, preferring to leave the villages for tourism jobs in neighbouring towns.

The documentary shows the mammoth challenges being faced by the Ifugao in the globalisation age and asks whether it will be possible to maintain the unique rice terraces while also doing right by the young generation of Ifugao.

Writer and Director: Antje Christ
Camera: Marcel Schmitz
Sound: Steven Altig
Editing: Jens Gronheid
Music: Karl-Heinz Blomann
Production: Antje Christ
Commissioning editor: Claudia Cellarius

World Distributor NEW DOCS

Go back