AllMovie

Documentary filmmaker Christian Blackwood has made a career of filming various notable cinema and stage directors at work or interviewing them about their lives and careers. In this documentary, the well-known and highly self-effacing Philippine director Lino Brocka is interviewed. At the time of the documentary, the director had returned to making commercial romantic schlock for mass consumption back home, but from time to time, as he could afford it, he made more adventurous movies, often including homosexual themes, or themes relating to the tremendous poverty and social oppression of his homeland. In his interviews, he is shown to be highly politically aware and active: he was jailed earlier in the 1980s for championing the cause of striking jitney drivers. One of his most celebrated films, Insiang, was shown at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, but by that time he had already made numerous gripping films with social themes.