Her life is literally in jeopardy, and I kept worrying that the inevitable extreme of dynamics in which the press is turned into the enemy would lead to a tragedy. There’s so much tension in Duterte’s assault on journalism, including death threats via social media, that “A Thousand Cuts” plays out like a thriller in terms of what might happen to Ressa next. Through it all, “A Thousand Cuts” keeps returning to Ressa, who remarkably holds out hope through all of it, even as Duterte has her arrested and charged. Diaz never bangs this drum too loudly, but there’s a disturbing reminder that politicians like Duterte don’t exist in a vacuum-they enable not only their underlings who have similar beliefs but empower anyone to use questionable tactics to get ahead. And we also spend time with future politicians enabled by Duterte’s rhetoric, including a police chief who tries to use the drug war to further his career and a social media darling who tries to turn Insta-fame into actual political power. The filmmaking team was allowed remarkable access to elements of the Duterte administration, including underlings who helped drive his social media campaigns, the blindingly loyal ones designed to elevate him and the threatening, vile ones that targeted his enemies. At the beginning, people like Maria Ressa and her organization Rappler were there to speak truth to power, posting investigative reports about the impact of Duterte’s regime and even interviewing the world leader.įrom the beginning of “A Thousand Cuts,” Diaz and her team present a firm grasp on all of the issues at play in this complex situation, never dumbing it down for easy consumption but also never letting it get away from them. Like so many dictators, he rose to power on a platform of fear-only he could protect the innocent citizens of his country from the criminals overtaking it. She charts the rise of Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign of violent intimidation, making it clear how he achieved power by promising vengeance, turning the streets of Manila into a bloody nightmare by empowering his people to murder anyone involved in the drug trade. “ pacy, engrossing, galvanizing film feels more like a political thriller than an off-the-cuff investigation into embattled journalism in the Philippines, but Ressa’s seemingly boundless energy, good humor, and intelligence make her basically a power plant for the manufacture of inspiration in embattled times.Diaz displays a remarkable skill with editing hours of footage about a complex issue into a tight piece of non-fiction filmmaking that makes its point often merely by bearing witness to history being made in the Philippines. Diaz on Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin on WNYC. Listen to an interviewwith filmmaker Ramona S.
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IN ENGLISH AND TAGALOG WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES PBS DISTRIBUTION
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Leadership gifts received from: Hugo Barreca, Leon and Michaela Constantiner, Ostrovsky Family Fund. Presented with support from Film Forum’s Documentary Fund. Presented with support from the Richard Brick, Geri Asher, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries. In an attempt to suppress independent reporting, Duterte unleashed a powerful disinformation campaign that spread like wildfire throughout social media. As each side digs in, we witness an epic, ongoing fight for integrity, truth, and the value of human life – a conflict that extends beyond the Philippines into our own divisive backyard. The country’s top online news site, Rappler (founded by Ressa), investigated the murders and revealed a government-sanctioned drug war targeting poor addicts instead of lucrative dealers. Within hours of taking office, bodies piled up in the streets. In 2016, outsider candidate Rodrigo Duterte upset the political establishment by winning the presidency, vowing vengeance and violence. Diaz (IMELDA, MOTHERLAND), takes an inside look at the key players in the escalating war between the media and the government in the Philippines and the ongoing threat to freedom of the press.
#A thousand cuts movie trial
On the heels of the shocking guilty verdict in the Manila trial of renowned Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, A THOUSAND CUTS, from award-winning filmmaker Ramona S.