Visions

The last of Tony Rayns' reports from the Far East investigates a politically contentious cinema. In President Marcos's Philippines, filmmakers like Lino Brocka are in the front line of political agitation from freedom of speech and expression. The popularity of their films (dealing as directly as possible with social issues) is the only thing that saves them from the fate of lesser figures. Their filmmaking owes little to the dominant tradition of the Philippines' filmmaking, as historian Hammy Sotto makes clear. Gerardo De Leon is their real precursor and the programme begins with a clip from his banned The Moises Padilla Story - about the murder of an opposition leader in the Fifties. Shot in a semi-clandestine fashion, this programme documents an entertainment cinema that is also a cinema of political contestation.