A Long Watch

[MikeB]

When I was watching the film I didn’t realize that April Butler, the man’s daughter and the person filming the video, was a professional documentary maker, although she did mention early in the film that she makes her living behind the camera. The quality of the video on that site was so poor that I thought it was a personal recording of a family experience. When I watched a trailer on you tube it looked like a full feature film, the difference was startling. It appears that it was an “expose” all along and she set up her father whom, in her words, she “was never really close to” and he naively and stupidly played along. There are no good guys but Ms. Butler is the worst of the bunch.

[Methersgate]

Yes, I tended to forget that the film was not being made on the camera that she was toting round with her, but by a cameraman following her. Her language at some points was not what one would hope to hear in a professional film

 

Edited to add:

The penny has just dropped! I was slow on the uptake.  I think she set out to make a professional-quality documentary about the impact on a Canadian family of Dad, aged 72, taking up with a 23 year old Filipina, but when she discovered that Girlie was 17 she had to drop that plan, so so finished the film off anyway and released it to video as it is. 

Edited October 8, 2014 by Methersgate

[brock]

Ok so maybe Pedophile is wrong choice of words, But in Philippine law he had sex with a child.

[Markham]

The quality of the video on that site was so poor that I thought it was a personal recording of a family experience.

The default version presented by DailyMotion is low-resolution but I was able to download a much better version from DailyMotion - 848x480. Oh and no advertising on the downloaded copy, Andrew!

 

The Hong Kong scenes were a bit nostalgic: Mae and I were wed at Central Registry Office.

 

Girlie may only have been 17 but she showed more love and respect for Dale and behaved in a more mature way than either his daughter or his grand-daughter.

[Methersgate]

The "amusement park" is HK Disneyland, which I recognised because K and I took Krian there in May. It's a bit disingenuous to call it "an amusement park" - there are plenty of adults who will admit to wanting to go there.

[Jake]

It's my understanding that the whole group (Dale, Girly, Girly's father, Dale's daughter and granddaughter) met in HK

to celebrate the upcoming marriage.  The HK officials rejected the marriage application because Girly's passport did

reveal her underage of 17, even though Girly's father was only invited to HK in order to sign a release for his daughter

to be married.

 

It sounds like a conspiracy for all involved that they couldn't get married in PI (couldn't bribe the priest or city officials?)

but they attempted to try it in HK anyway.  It was a slap in the face for Dale's daughter to discover that her father was

having intimate relationship when Girly was only 16 years old.  Everybody knew that, except her.  Thank god that HK

officials are very strict in those matters.

 

What I don't understand is the finance to support all that flying around, round trips to HK, Bali, Canada and Philippines

within a short period of time --possibly within a year?  Was it paid by the producer of that so called documentary?     

Edited October 8, 2014 by Jake
spil chek

[cebu rocks]

I really wonder if the whole thing is scripted ?  I find many problems with the film the 1 thing that really made me wonder is girlies excellent english for a 16 year old . Over all though It does show the filippino mind set on many levels .  A interesting look at the way the may december relationships are viewed from both sides . In the end it still feels scripted to me maybe Dale was not informed of the script but I believe April had this in mind from day 1  as a  Docu how boring would it be if girlie was 28 .  I have to say I found a few parts making me burst out laughing and others parts like a train wreck I could not look away from .

[Methersgate]

That would be my guess, Jake. Passports for Girlie and her father, tickets for them and Dale to HK, tickets for the daughter and grandaughter to HK, hotels for everybody, plus the cameraman and two other trips. to the Phils and to Bali for the daughter and the cameraman. 

 

Far more than I could afford.

 

And as I guess the commercial documentary could not be made, because of the under age issue, which might have been another reason for the daughter's fury.

I have to say that Girlie did not "come across" as 17. I agree with Cebu Rocks - her English is wayyy too good.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Methersgate

[davewe]

This doc made the rounds of some forums I am on some months back, so it's a bit old news to me.

 

As a sometime writer and filmmaker I found it very inappropriate that the man's daughter would be making a documentary of her father's relationship with a Pinay. Long before she discovered the girl's true age she had real problems with the relationship and therefore making an allegedly objective documentary was not the right thing to do. Perhaps it would have been better if she'd told the story strictly from her own perspective, dealing with her own feelings as a middle aged woman whose father is marrying a younger woman. That would have come off as a bit more honest to me.

 

The old father naively or foolishly believed that the documentary process might bring his daughter and he closer together. It should have been clear to him early on that this was not going to happen.

 

What I did find interesting (and honest) is that no one came off as either completely good or completely bad. The father did have relations with an underaged girl, but a girl he cared about. Girly was dishonest about her age but in many ways she was sweet and more mature than her age. The daughter did try to understand her father but in the end trashed him.

 

My main takeaway is to take my kids' cameras away from them :)

[Jake]

I really wonder if the whole thing is scripted ?  I find many problems with the film the 1 thing that really made me wonder is girlies excellent english for a 16 year old . Over all though It does show the filippino mind set on many levels .  A interesting look at the way the may december relationships are viewed from both sides . In the end it still feels scripted to me maybe Dale was not informed of the script but I believe April had this in mind from day 1  as a  Docu how boring would it be if girlie was 28 .  I have to say I found a few parts making me burst out laughing and others parts like a train wreck I could not look away from .

Hmm.....berry interesting angles coming from an amateur video hack!  I can see both theories on how this documentary

was actually produced.  It gives me much thought.......I'm already on my 3rd cup of coffee!

 

Respectfully -- Jake 

Edited October 8, 2014 by Jake
spil chek