MANILA -- It's been 20 years since award-winning director and activist Lino Brocka was killed in a vehicular accident in Quezon City but, to various artists, writers, filmmakers, poets and various movie buffs, his work remains influential and relevant.

"Nothing has changed in society. The issues of political corruption and social injustice that Brocka tackled in his films continue to happen today,” said Ben Bernardo, a human-rights advocate, martial-law survivor and film buff. “Unlike the current crop of Philippine directors who only  choose to depict the poverty of Philippine society and dwell on the native and negating aspects of it, Brocka and his contemporary Ishmael Bernal did not leave his characters to suffer without relief or commit evil without consequence. Brocka believed in resolution and in taking his characters to the task of taking action."

According to Bernardo, Brocka "did not exempt himself from the struggle Filipino society waged against the Marcos dictatorship in those days and he chose to involve himself in the fight against censorship and for self-expression. He was also an expert his field. He was an artist who studied his craft, honed and improved it by studying and watching hundreds and hundreds of films. His own films are testament to his skills as a director, and to his activism."

Pepe Diokno, a 23-year-old filmmaker whose first film Engkwentro deals with human rights, poverty and injustice – themes that are familiar in many of Brocka’s movies – says Brocka remains relevant because “if you look around you, the poverty that Brocka saw 20 years ago is still the poverty that you see now.  We haven’t really progressed since then, which is why filmmakers today are still tackling the problems that he was tackling.”

Rolando Tolentino, chairman of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino and dean of the UP College of Mass Communication, agrees. “To a large extent, the issues that Brocka fought against did not disappear. Corruption, political disenfranchisement, poverty, foreign domination. These are problems Brocka faced and it is clear that they remain and are ingeniously being taken on by independent filmmakers.”

Brocka was the son of a carpenter and a teacher, and he grew up in poverty. He was exposed to the more bitter and painful realities of life at an early age, but this did not stop him from being an achiever and, eventually, the most popular and among the most respected directors of his time.

Brocka lived and breathed films, Bernardo said. When he was a young boy, he spent his free time watching movies in the neighborhood cinemas. Brocka graduated from high school with six medals and won a scholarship to the University of the Philippines. He was unable to finish his formal schooling because his interest in films, acting and other aspects of the performing life demanded too much of his time.  He honed his craft by becoming attuned to the lives of his recognized audience -- ordinary working people who tried to temporarily escape their own economic and personal problems by spending a few hours in movie houses.

By many accounts, Brocka was a pragmatic artist. He knew he had to come up with commercial films that earned money before he could come up with a film that he really cared about.

Diokno, who has received international awards for Engkwentro, including the Lion of the Future Award for a Debut Film at the Venice Film Festival,  says Brocka did not necessarily influence his own filmmaking but he respected and liked what the late director did. “Brocka did more mainstream films than art house, neo-realist films,” the young director told InterAksyon.com in an interview. Still, he adds,  “What I like about Brocka the most is that he was able to speak about the Filipino condition while entertaining” his audience at the same time.

Brocka tackled in his films topics that did not at the time receive attention from mainstream filmmakers. Many of the issues he dealt with were taboo or controversial, but his approach was neither exploitative or self-righteous. Instead, he chose to handle these topics with intelligence and sympathy, his flawed characters finding some measure of resolution to their problems that were a result of either conflicts in society or because of their inherent weaknesses and biases.

"Brocka was a political animal. He fought against censorship, and championed the cause for freedom  of expression of artists. But beyond these issues,  he also took a keen interest in concerns that immediately affect ordinary folk, the poor and working people: the lack of urban poor housing, increasing oil prices, joblessness.  His movies did not depict fairy-tales  but scenes that can very well happen in anyone's life," Bernardo pointed out.

Brocka was viciously anti-censorship and he was vocal in his views about issues concerning the country's sovereignty and political independence. An anti-bases activist, Brocka vigorously campaigned against the presence of US military facilities in the Philippines.

Predictable favorites among Brocka fans are  Bayan Ko (Kapit sa Patalim) (1985) and Orapronobis (1989). In the first,  a laborer is forced to become a scab during a strike out of desperation to keep his family alive. He takes the owner of the factory hostage, but everything quickly goes south and he ends up being fatally shot, dying in the arms of his weeping wife.  In Orapronobis, Brocka portrayed the abuses of the military and religious cults the Cory Aquino government recruited during its anti-insurgency war. The film was internationally acclaimed but, because of its controversial content, it was never shown in public theatres in the Philippines.

Bernardo said that there are artists -- writers and filmmakers -- who are acclaimed for coming out with works that "reflect" society and its corruption or weaknesses.  Brocka, however, was not content in turning his films into "mirrors."

"It was not enough for him to reflect society in his films, to depict what was wrong in society, leaders, the people. He wanted to make lasting comments, to influence, to change what was through his movies. Remember, he made his movies during a time of great social upheaval. His films made a direct impact on the anti-dictatorship movement. Not all his films can be considered political, but they all challenged viewers to think for themselves, to react. This by itself constituted rebellion against Marcos and Imelda's New Society here everything was supposed to be good and ideal and where Filipinos were forced to bend their will to the dictatorship," he said.

Bonifacio Ilagan, a screenwriter (Dukot) and activist, told InterAksyon.com that the present generation of filmmakers have much to learn from Brocka. But the most important lesson, he said, is story-telling. “Despite all these new technologies in filmmaking, the bottomline is storytelling and Lino was a very good storyteller,” Ilagan said.

This story-telling is evident in most of his films, both the commercial and the overtly political. In the film, Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak,  Brocka made his views known on the abuse of power by self-serving politicians.  In 1974, with about 100 artists and 10 businessmen, he formed the CineManila film company. That year, he directed Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang, a film that revolved around a teenaged boy and the small town where he lived and its petty and gross injustices. In 1975, he came out with Maynila Sa Kuko ng Liwanag wherein a young man rescuing his girlfriend from illegal recruiters end up dead, killed by a criminal syndicate.

Brocka's sweltering slums, characters carrying on incestuous relationships, women killing their rapists, homosexuality and single parenthood were protests against the New Society because they contradicted the image that the Marcoses wanted to present about the Philippines. It was, at the time, subversive to not only put up a mirror against the social decay  but more so to illicit reactions of disgust, of anger, of protest against it.

"Brocka made Philippine cinema an effective venue for social commentary. Through his films he tried to awaken public consciousness to the disturbing realities of the life of the Filipino poor and to condemn the abuses of those in power," Bernardo said.

Some independent filmmakers see more significance in his political activism. Tudla Productions, which organizes the annual Pandayang Lino Brocka of socially-oriented films, points out that “It is Lino Brocka’s strong conviction that artists are first and foremost citizens, and must address the issues confronting the country. That’s why in his practice, his films ‘look with sympathy on the common man and the human condition’ and were situated in their dwellings and thoughts. Lino Brocka firmly believes that films and politics cannot be dissociated.”

In 1983, Brocka created the organization Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP).  He believed that  artists were first and foremost members of Philippine society and as such they should involve themselves in issues confronting the country. CAP was very active in anti-Marcos rallies and was among those who joined the throng during Edsa 1.

Post-Edsa Brocka struggled for a freer media atmosphere. Brocka made it his advocacy to fight for a political and cultural atmosphere conducive to a thinking, active media. President Cory Aquino appointed him to the 1986 Constitutional Commission. Soon after, he and a few other  commissioners resigned in disgust after saying that the  new charter the commission was  drafting was "repressive and anti-Filipino."

Today, Brocka’s legacy is well-respected in global cinema. Writing in The Guardian in January 2001, Derek Malcolm paid tribute to the Filipino filmmaker: "When Lino Brocka died in a car crash in 1991, the Philippines lost its outstanding director -- a man who, despite the constraints of a commercial industry and vicious censorship under Marcos, succeeded in making half a dozen films of great power and universal appeal." (Additional reporting by Carlos H. Conde)


Tribute from Poets, Artists

KM64, an organization of poets, has put out a tribute for Brocka. The group has come out with the “I am Lino Brocka” Poetry Project wherein the participating poets contributed poems on the director's artistry, social concern, films and personal quirks. 

CAP is organizing a gathering in tribute to him on May 22 at the Himlayang Pilipino, where he is buried. The group is also finalizing efforts led by Bayan Muna partylist to lobby for the passage of a bill in the House of Representatives to mark May 22 as "Freedom of Self-Expression Day.”