Philippines

  • Lino Brocka – Macho Dancer (1988)

    Lino Brocka1981-1990CrimeDramaPhilippinesQueer Cinema(s)
    Macho Dancer (1988)
    Macho Dancer (1988)

    Macho Dancer is a 1988 Philippine film, directed Lino Brocka, which explores the harsh realities of a young, poor, rural gay man, who after being dumped by his American boyfriend, is forced to make a living for himself in Manila’s seamy red-light district. Based on a true story, the film frank depiction of homosexuality, prostitution, drag queens and crooked cops, porno movie-making and sexual slavery, and drugs and violence caused the Filipino government censors to order extensive edits of the film, forcing an uncensored edition to be smuggled out of the Philippines and shown to a limited number of international film festivals. This print is now part of the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art in New York [Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video. 1994. Raymond Murray]Read More »

  • Lino Brocka – Miguelito: Batang rebelde (1985)

    Lino Brocka1981-1990DramaPhilippines
    Miguelito Batang rebelde (1985)
    Miguelito Batang rebelde (1985)

    This is the story of Miguelito, his estranged mother Auring and the quest for justice against a powerful politician. After ten years of suffering in jail for a crime she did not commit, Auring cries out for two things – justice and her son back in her arms. Bravely she faces her powerful oppressors led by the formidable town mayor who also happens to be the father of her son. Being the first film Brocka directed since his highly publicized arrest and detention, Miguelito is one’s typical soap opera set in a political backdrop that portrays the social condition of the time (Letterboxd)Read More »

  • Lino Brocka – Bona (1980)

    Lino Brocka1971-1980DramaPhilippines
    Bona (1980)
    Bona (1980)

    Quote:
    Bona, released in 1980, is perhaps his best–regarded work. The title character is a young, starstruck schoolgirl (played by Nora Aunor) who falls in love with an ageing actor (Phillip Salvador) and becomes his servant. She waits on him loyally in his decrepit shack, receiving nothing for her labors but the privilege of being his slave. When the actor decides he has had enough of her and attempts to toss her aside, Bona retaliates in a wholly unexpected, utterly justified fit of violent rage. As with many of his other independently made films, Bona reveals Brocka’s uncanny ability to join the personal and the political, to locate the overarching social statement in an intimate, deeply individualized gesture. Read More »

  • Mike De Leon – Kung mangarap ka’t magising AKA Moments in a Stolen Dream (1977)

    Mike De Leon1971-1980DramaPhilippinesRomance
    Kung mangarap ka't magising (1977)
    Kung mangarap ka’t magising (1977)

    PLOT: Joey, a musically-inclined college student who falls for Ana, a married young woman vacationing from Manila. As their friendship starts blossoming into romance, the two slowly uncover startling truths about each other’s pasts.Read More »

  • Lino Brocka – Orapronobis AKA Fight for Us (1989)

    Lino Brocka1981-1990DramaPhilippinesPolitics
    Orapronobis (1989)
    Orapronobis (1989)

    Set during the post-Marcos regime in a remote village of Dolores, chronicles the life of Jimmy Cordero, a political prisoner who have just been freed from prison after the decline of the Marcos dictatorship. From his revolutionary past, he got himself into human rights activism following his prison release. He and his wife’s brother once conducted a fact-finding mission to Dolores only to find out the terror brought about to its residents by the Orapronobis, a government-backed anti-communist paramilitary troop deployed in the town of Dolores.Read More »

  • Lino Brocka – Maynila sa mga kuko ng liwanag AKA Manila in the Claws of Light (1975)

    1971-1980ArthouseDramaLino BrockaPhilippines

    PLOT: A fascinating portrait of life in Manila’s corrupt, teeming and polluted urban jungle, Manila in the Claws of Light tells the story of Julio, a 21-year-old fisherman who arrives in the Filipino capital looking for his girlfriend. Immediately robbed of what little cash he has, he scrabbles to survive, drifting through a number of temporary jobs, while wandering the city in search of his beloved.Read More »

  • Mike De Leon – Bayaning 3rd World AKA 3rd World Hero (2000) (HD)

    1991-2000DramaMike De LeonPhilippines

    Quote:
    Part-investigative documentary, part-satire and shot entirely in black-and-white, the film tackles the mystery that surrounds the life and death of the Filipino hero, Jose Rizal.Read More »

  • Shireen Seno – Nervous Translation (2017)

    2011-2020ArthousePhilippinesShireen Seno

    Informed by filmmaker Shireen Seno’s childhood in the Filipino diaspora and her dual training in film and architecture, this sophomore work is a stylized evocation of a child’s fanciful interpretation of the world around her. Eight-year-old Yael, left to her own devices after school, secretly plays and replays audio cassettes her father sends home to her mother while working overseas in Saudi Arabia; pursues happiness as communicated to her via a TV advertisement; and, in fanciful scenes that evoke the work of American artist Laurie Simmons, enters the meditative, immersive world of her dollhouse’s kitchen. Seno offers fleeting clues from the late-eighties outside world, hinting at societal turmoil following Ferdinand Marcos’s ouster and complicated adult relations, but these never overshadow her film‘s touching depiction of childhood imagination.Read More »

  • Lupita Aquino-Kashiwahara – Minsa’y isang gamu-gamo AKA Once a Moth (1976)

    1971-1980DramaLupita Aquino-KashiwaharaPhilippinesPolitics

    PLOT: Living near the US Clark Air Base, Corazon de la Cruz dreams of a better life in America… until the unspeakable happens.Read More »

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