Mindanao is the Philippine’s second largest island in the south. Identifying
Mindanao-based documentaries that have development themes remain unknown
or unacknowledged. Using Phenomenology as theoretical framework and method,
as a result, the researcher found out that similar to other documentary films in
other parts of the country and the world, the themes showed by Mindanao-based
documentaries reflect on agriculture, health, women and children, environment
and population. However unlike its other foreign and local counterparts, a number
of Mindanao-based documentaries anchor the mentioned development themes
under the context of peace and conflict situation, human rights, indigenous peoples
and their ancestral domains.