‘Food Delivery’ documentary brings the West Philippine Sea conflict closer to our stomachs
“Our small wooden boats against China’s massive steel ships. Through the lens, we wanted to show courage and Filipino bravery despite the enormous risks.”
CEBU CITY — When information overwhelms us in a dystopic haze, reminding ourselves of the basic issue can be difficult even if it hits us between the eyes. Director Baby Ruth Villarama’s Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea tells us that food security is at stake for the Filipino people. The film documents the dangers the fisherfolk face in their traditional fishing route, and members of the Philippine navy delivering food for those stationed on isolated islands amid the West Philippine Sea dispute. It also documents their collective courage.
Villarama has closely monitored the conflict in the West Philippine Sea both as a spectator and a researcher for international news organizations, and the volume of stark news items on the West Philippine Sea conflict ignited Villarama to pursue the documentary film Food Delivery. “We started when we witnessed how serious it was, Chinese vessels chasing our fisherfolk and even some members of the media, you know it’s not going to simmer down,” Villarama told Bulatlat.
For Villarama, the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea unless documented and acted upon. “I’m not being messianic about it, but I asked: what else can we do? Our government has always been conservative in handling the situation—“maximum tolerance” has been their stance, especially to protect OFWs in China.” Beyond the geopolitics and the long-time running contested lines on a map, “…there’s a human face to this issue,” said Villarama.
Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea received a seed grant for the CinePanalo Film Festival 2025 funded by Puregold, a supermarket company.
Securing Food Delivery
For a vérité shot mostly in the middle of the sea, Food Delivery captures steady shots, especially conversations of fisherfolks and marine soldiers. Presented by Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, the surround sound in theaters makes you feel like you’re under water yourself. The sound design and musical score pulls you into a journey that mirrors the shots’ harrowing beauty while also leaving you a little seasick.Documentary requires intensive attention and presence with the subject, with almost all elements beyond their control. Villarama told Bulatlat the crew had to enter the psyché of the fisherfolk. “We have to adapt. We’re not guests there. We’re witnesses of their lives and [we] have to respect the rhythm and their life in general. So for us, we gave them the space that they needed for them to do their work. And then for us, we’re just witnessing, and my tall order is to really capture everything as cinematically as possible.”
During the initial stages of principal photography, the Food Delivery crew learned that islands within the West Philippine Sea are traditional fishing grounds for fisherfolks. “They are actually the ones making sure that there is balance in our biodiversity. They’re not using dynamite fishing. They’re feeding the fish, protecting the corals,” said Villarama.
“We also discovered how rich our marine life is and that’s why China is so intent on occupying our waters. It’s not just about territory; it’s about resources. I feel like I did not even give justice to the natural resources that we have beneath because we don’t have robotic cameras to really go down and capture the natural gas exploding underneath,” Villarama told Bulatlat. “All we could do is just dive with the fishermen and capture how beautiful our marine life is. So, we just want the audience to swim with the fish, to swim with the fishermen, to fall in love with the idea of fishing as a beautiful and dignified job.”
Realizing the struggle of fishing and delivering food, it was around this time when Villarama realized that struggling for as basic as food became the central theme of the documentary. “We’ve always wanted to figure out how we can bring the issue closer to our stomach. And we didn’t realize that we should do something literal about it. So, you know, when we realize that this is not just a film, it’s like a mirror of what’s really at stake when livelihoods and homes are caught in the tides of conflict,” she shared.
Securing the permit to join the RORE mission, a rotation and reprovisioning mission by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to provide supplies to the stationed soldiers in the West Philippine Sea, became the hardest milestone the crew had to face. “We don’t have the luxury of time and we’re just given a limited opportunity to join the voyagers of the fisherfolk and the RORE mission of the AFP,” said Villarama. They can only be informed the night they have to leave for security reasons.
“That’s the last one we were able to shoot. They have to do it really in the shadows because China is really harassing the ships. They used smaller boats, ribs, sneaking behind Navy ships to avoid Chinese patrols. Everything had to be quick and silent,” recalled Villarama. At night, the captain would switch off the lights on both the Navy ship and the main fishing vessel to avoid detection.
For Villarama, it was clearly a David and Goliath story. “Our small wooden boats against China’s massive steel ships. Through the lens, we wanted to show courage and Filipino bravery despite the enormous risks.”
With Food Delivery, Villarama intends to redefine perspective. “I avoided shooting down—I prefer a slightly upward angle, especially with Filipinos who have long been looked down upon,” she said.
China tails Food Delivery
The documentary film was set to premiere during the CinePanalo festival last March 14, 2025. The festival received flak after removing Food Delivery among the eight feature films due to “external factors” as stated in the joint statement of CinePanalo festival director Chris Cahilig and Villarama. “It was really tough,” she told Bulatlat. “But we have to be strategic about it. We can only, you know, lick our wounds up to a certain point.”
With its Philippine premiere on the blur, the Food Delivery crew had to be strategic in securing the rights of the film to join festivals outside of the Puregold-funded efforts. “When we secured the rights, we immediately submitted to international festivals,” said Villarama. Almost three months later, the film cruised to an international premiere as part of DocEdge Festival in Auckland, New Zealand on June 30, 2025. It was among the 33 documentaries selected from 1,500 film entries this year, and DocEdge headlined Food Delivery as “…a banned film that must be seen.” Though it seems like even in other international waters, China still tails Food Delivery.
The Chinese Consulate in New Zealand, on July 5, 2025, attempted to remove the film from the DocEdge festival lineup. In their formal request addressed to the festival, the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Auckland stated that “the film is rife with disinformation and false propaganda.”
On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, Netherlands issued the arbitral award in favor of the Philippines against China regarding the maritime entitlements in the West Philippine Sea and the long-time contested nine-dash line.
The Chinese Consulate also stated that “China neither accepts nor participates in that arbitration, neither accepts nor recognizes the award, and will never accept any claim or action arising from the award.” The request hoped DocEdge to “… act in the interest of public and China-New Zealand relations accountability by refraining from screening this documentary.” “At this point, I knew we had created something potent—because they were giving us their full attention,” Villarama told Bulatlat.
Doc Edge stood by Kaupapa, a M?ori term for principle, and emphasized the festival’s independence and curatorial freedom as stated in their official response to the request to can the documentary.
“I really have to give credit to the Doc Edge Film Festival—it was such a class act for them to stand behind a Filipino film,” said Villarama. “They could have easily dropped us, kept their funding for next year, and avoided trouble. After all, there were actual threats.”
The Doc Edge Festival later awarded the film Tides of Change Award. The film was later set for public release in the Philippines on July 15, 2025, four months later after its supposed Philippine premiere as part of the CinePanalo film festival. On August 25, the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) included Food Delivery in the shortlist for the Philippines’ entry to the Best International Feature Film Category at the Academy Awards
Though the film experienced limited releases in the Philippines, civic groups organized block screenings for the film. On August 1, 2025, the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) hosted a special screening of the documentary at the Power Plant Cinema, Rockwell, Makati City. The film remains open for block screening through Voyage Studios.In the later parts of the film, a fisherfolk jokingly mentioned that China may have advanced military weapons, but the Filipinos have mythical creatures like Aswangs and Manananggal. He later became serious and confronted the camera asking why can’t the Filipinos rally together against China.
What Villarama captured is less a spectacle of confrontation than a chronicle of endurance. It is a reminder that beneath the abstractions of geopolitics lies the daily labor of fisherfolk and marine soldiers, their courage, and the hunger at bay.
Like the fisherfolk and marine soldiers stationed in isolated islands, the bravery of this documentary is hard to come by. As a filmmaker, Villarama said “…the only weapon I have is the story. I don’t have guns, I don’t have money, I’m not a billionaire, I’m not a nepo baby. But I have a story, and it’s based on truth. We witnessed it. And we designed the film so other people, Filipinos and global citizens alike, can also witness it,” she told Bulatlat. (RVO)
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