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A group of UOG Film Students put together and premiered a documentary that shed light on what it’s like to live as an underserved family on the island
PNCs Devin Eligio has this story
“Zero Down” premiered at the UOG Film Festival this past weekend and displayed to the audience the struggle of living in Guam as a low-income family.
Dannika Williams, Zero Down Editor states, “These communities that live on Guam that we don’t really… you know… we don’t really hear their voices as often.”
The “Zero Down” documentary takes its name from the zero-down housing areas that some of these families reside in.
The film team told the story of Maxon William’s family who moved from Chuuk to Guam in the early 2000s and resided in Cyfred for some time — emphasizing the struggle of living in these communities — some without water and a proper sewage system.
William stated, “For my parents, like their experiences on that land, and how they struggled through it but despite those struggles, we were able to prosper from it, through the years on Guam.”
To those in the team, the similar lesson they all shared was breaking their former misconceptions and being made aware of the struggle these communities face.
Bradley Bartonico, Zero Down Narrator chimed in stating, “It just shed a new light and gave me a new perspective on who these people are, what these communities do.”
Keanno Fausto, Zero Down Co-Writer also adds, “All of this negative attention isn’t the individual’s choice. A lot of it is imposed on them.”
The team acknowledged that while steps are being made to address and help with these issues, more can be done.
They further expressed that they strive for more awareness to be brought to these issues and hope that their film achieves that goal.
Isaac Novilla, Zero Down Director states, “If they’re living in these situations that the government kind of overlooks — if there’s one thing they don’t need to pay for and one thing that is completely affordable to them is their family. There’s no price for family.
