Diego in San Pedro, Cutud, San Fernando, Pampanga for Maleldo 2010
I'm a big fan of this new series in National Geographic Channel, its about a guy and his camera man travel in different countries and feature some tidbits of info about the place and its history, I became a fan due to its raw style of documenting the whole activity of their travel adventures, sometimes its scary to see them travel to different countries that are being affected by conflicts, but in the lighter side of his travel, there is also a good story to tell, been a fan after watching that episode when he visited North Korea and after that I watch the show everytime I switch on my tv set.
And for what he do is like video blogging his travel for TV, and this inspire many of us travel and video bloggers.And I just discovered this afternoon that he visited us here in Manila, Philippines, I'm so happy that he featured us,but I'm glad that its a good story and not about bad things, let's think positive as we see how Diego will feature us and tell a good story about Manila, Philippines.
more story below!
Diego Luis Buñuel is a French-American foreign war correspondent who never tell his mother whenever he has an assignment and travel to other countries, this will prevent her mom not to get worried or nervous, he always say that to his production crew in Paris office "Don't tell my mother", and then his colleagues will just approve his request.
Diego covered the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the US intervention in Afghanistan, he do coverages since 2001 and still continues, in 2003 he joined the US Marine Corps in Baghdad to cover and also reported about the 2nd Congo War, he was there also to cover the news about the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the funeral of Yasser Arafat. In 2006 he decided to shoot and produced the new series for NGC "Don't Tell My Mother", where he featured a new look and find a good story in these rarely traveled areas that experienced lots of issues and conflicts such as Afghanistan, Colombia, North Korea, Congo, Venezuela, Israel, Iran, Iraq, the Balkans, and Pakistan. He decided to do the show because he realizes that most global news are all about worst events and there's no one tells the story about the most interesting culture, places and its people, so Diego went in a mission by himself to search for the best and fascinating people and their remarkable stories as they say located in the most dangerous places on Earth.
Diego visited us here in Manila, Philippines just a few months ago, as he said - “We are doing a ten-part series on the biggest cities in the world – Mexico City in San Carlo, Lagos in Nigeria, Cairo, Beirut, Delhi, Tokyo, and Manila,” Diego shared to us that he was inspired to tell a story about these cities after being inspired by the 2008 United Nations report where they cited that for the first time in history, many people are now living in cities than in the countryside. “I thought it would be really interesting because if our future is going to be in cities then we have to find solutions on how we can live together now.” Diego said.
Diego inside New Bilibid Prison.
“When I was doing my research on New Bilibid Prisons, I realized why was nobody talking about this? I mean I’ve been in many maximum security prisons before like in the US with armed guards and raving maniacs and chain gangs, and suddenly there’s this maximum security prison in the Philippines, which is the largest prison in the country, and there’s 20,000 inmates in there and it seems that none of the usual stigma of prisons happen there. When you go inside the prison, you will see rapists, murderers, and kidnappers all trying to work as one community.”
he also noted - “women are allowed overnight stays and there are playgrounds where children can play. I mean, you will never expect to see a playground in a maximum security prison.”
Diego at the firebird farm in Tanay, Rizal.
(right) and cameraman Nicholas Boero ride a train trolley in Sta. Mesa.
Here in Manila, Diego and his camera man Nicholas Boero visited the Manila North Cemetery, firebird farm in Tanay, Rizal, he also tried to be nailed on the cross in a Good Friday holy week at San Pedro Cutud in San Fernando, Pampanga for the Maleldo 2010, and then he played sakla and card game, and rode the train trolley or the padyak in Sta. Mesa.
“You’ve got the Asian side, you’ve got the sky scrapers, the modern buildings, and then you’ve got this more rural side that’s filled with poverty. It’s rare to see a city with this kind of balance. This new season of Don’t Tell My Mother offers a real way of discovering the world and how the world changes based on different cultures and ways of exploring things.
I think that’s what the National Geographic Channel is all about – showing people on one part of the planet what people are doing on the other side of the planet, and to try to bring this global network of vision and surprise and exciting stories to one another.”
Don’t Tell My Mother I’m in Manila will air on September 7 at 9:30PM, only on the National Geographic Channel.
