MARX, MELODRAMA AND MARCOS: LINO BROCKA FROM THE MID-1970s TO THE EARLY 1980s

Still the Philippines’ most revered auteur, Catalino Ortiz (“Lino”) Brocka (1939–1991) was a prolific filmmaker whose strident activism both within his cinematic oeuvre and off-screen made him a reliable thorn in the side of Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship (1965–1986). Raised a Catholic in poverty who then converted to Mormonism, the openly gay Brocka rose to fame locally at the outset of the 1970s as a director churning out well-received studio films at a frantic clip. However, upon Marcos’ 1972 declaration of martial law, he changed tack to run avowedly counter to the regime’s demands that cinema only present a sugar-coated picture of a notionally booming Philippines. Brocka’s cinema instead focused increasingly upon the hardscrabble lives of the nation’s hidden underclasses, even incorporating documentary sequences to attest to the routine squalor and danger experienced by lowest-caste Filipinos. His first two masterworks, Manila in the Claws of Light (1975) and Insiang (1976) – the latter the first Filipino film to screen at Cannes – are exemplary cases in point, shot on location in Manila slums where it was expressly forbidden to film and yoking Marxist neo-realism to searing melodrama. Both of these key films feature in this season alongside recent digital restorations of Bona (1980) and Cain and Abel (1982), two lurid subsequent classics that further speak to the socio-politically engaged greatness of the work of a filmmaker whose career was in no way slowing down when his life was tragically ended in a car crash in 1991.

Wednesday 29 October

7:00pm INSIANG

Lino Brocka (1976) 95 mins – M

Originally made by Brocka and actress Hilda Koronel as an episode of the TV drama series Hilda, the two reprise their respective creative and onscreen roles for this feature-film remake, which launched the director as a prominent figure in world cinema when screened at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival (a first for a Filipino film). Shot in the slums of Tondo in Manila amidst the real dangers of organised crime, Brocka’s depiction of the harsh realities of urban poverty and his brutally poetic imagery are today understood as thinly veiled criticisms of President Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law state.

Restored in 2015 by Cineteca di Bologna/ L’Immagine Ritrovata. Restoration funding provided by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and the Film Development Council of the Philippines.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
Negotiating truth and beauty: Lino Brocka’s Insiang
by Danica van de Velde

8:55pm MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF LIGHT

Lino Brocka (1975) 124 mins – Unclassified 15+

Adapted from a popular serialised novel by Edgardo M. Reyes, Brocka’s incendiary film follows Julio (Bembol Roco) who arrives in Manila in search of his girlfriend Ligaya (Hilda Koronel) and is quickly ensnared in the city’s destructive tendrils. Told with the docu-realist approach that was the director’s trademark, scenes of exploitation and social inequality are contrasted with highly stylised images of urban commercialism. Made during an era of martial law, Brocka’s portrait of political upheaval and resistance under dictatorship was, very surprisingly, approved by the censors without cuts. Winner of nine Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Awards.

Restored in 2013 by the World Cinema Foundation and the Film Development Council of the Philippines at Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with LVN, Cinema Artists Philippines and Mike de Leon. Restoration funding provided by Doha Film Institute.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
Mapping Resistance: Lino Brocka’s Manila in the Claws of Light
by Tito Ramos Quiling, Jnr.

Wednesday 5 November

7:00pm BONA

Lino Brocka (1980) 88 mins – Unclassified 15+

Rarely seen since the 1980s, and long believed lost in a fire, this landmark of Filipino cinema stars Nora Aunor (who was also producer) in a role that subverted her image as a star of blockbuster films. Aunor plays Bona, a high-school student who becomes obsessed with low-grade actor Gardo (Phillip Salvador), eventually moving in with him, against the objections of her parents. Partly shot in a slum, the film is a commentary on the nature of stardom, the dangers of devotion and the place of women under the Marcos dictatorship. Finally available again in a stunning restoration, it further cements Brocka’s standing as one of the Philippines’ most important directors.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
Bona
by Darragh O’Donoghue

8:40pm CAIN AND ABEL

Lino Brocka (1982) 111 mins – Unclassified 15+

Equal parts sardonic critique of Filipino landed gentry during the Marcos era and, per its title, a religious allegory, Brocka’s transgressively pulpy tale of sibling rivalry is a grisly, violent action thriller steeped in melodrama. Digitally restored in 2016, it was penned by prolific screenwriter Ricky Lee (like Brocka, a member, post-Marcos, of the Order of National Artists) and stars the “King of Philippine Drama”, Christopher De Leon as well as Phillip Salvador and legendary Filipina actor, Mona Lisa. Winner of Best Picture at the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Awards.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
Who Shall Heal Murder?: Lino Brocka’s Cain and Abel
by Austin Lancaster