Daang Dokyu, the country’s first documentary festival, is returning this September—and they’re using their collection of documentaries to remind people of the Marcos family’s atrocities.
With the theme “Martial Law, Never Again,” Daang Dokyu will be screening documentaries that look into the Marcos regime’s atrocities and human rights issues that continue to remain relevant today.
The documentaries on their opening lineup include the 1986 documentary “Marcos: A Malignant Spirit.” The film is hosted by ABS-CBN’s Angelo Castro Jr., and contains rare footage and recorded conversations that look into how Marcos systematically drained the country’s economy.
Daang Dokyu will also be screening Ramona Diaz’ “Imelda.” The 2003 film documents Imelda Marcos’ childhood, her marriage to Ferdinand Marcos and role in the dictatorship, her family’s exile and eventual return to the country.
The festival will also be premiering a number of documentaries on their opening activities including Kiri Dalena’s “Alunsina,” which documents children and families in urban settlements affected by the war on drugs. The film offers an intimate look into how they confront and survive these tragedies.
There’s also Nettie Wild’s “A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Philippine Revolution,” which chronicles the three points of a political triangle: the legal left, the armed revolution and the reactionary right. This documentary was filmed over eight months in 1988, and will be making its debut in the country after 32 years.
Lito Tiongson’s 1987 documentary “Mendiola Massacre” will be completing the lineup. It is a newsreel of the state forces violently dispersing peasant organizations protesting for genuine agrarian reform.
“Our generation now has been witnessing the erosion of our freedoms, unbelievable abuses of power, and a growing confusion about the future. We think documentaries can help make up our minds about the lessons already learned, mistakes we shouldn’t repeat, and what we shouldn’t allow again to be done to us as a people,” says festival director Jewel Maranan.
Daang Dokyu’s lineup of documentaries will be streamed for free on their website from Sept. 19 to 21.
Header photo screengrabbed from “Imelda”
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