INTERVIEW: New ‘Frontline’ doc investigates press freedom amidst drug war in the Philippines
Photo: A Thousand Cuts, a new film from Ramona S. Diaz, follows journalist Maria Ressa in the Philippines. Photo courtesy of Frontline / Provided by Susan Norget Film Promotion with permission.
Director Ramona S. Diaz has returned to a documentary subject that means a lot to her and her team: the Philippines. This time she is looking at life under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, who came to power in 2016. Set amidst the backdrop of the country’s ongoing drug war, Diaz’s film focuses on several key figures in the Philippines, including persecuted journalist Maria Ressa, who earlier this year was convicted on libel charges.
As a journalist, Ressa has faced numerous pressures when covering Duterte’s term in office, and her case underscores the global issue of dwindling press freedoms. Diaz hopes that audiences see the parallels between the Philippines and other countries throughout the world.
“It started in 2016 when Duterte became president,” Diaz said recently in a virtual interview. “I was finishing up my previous film, and suddenly I started seeing all of these really horrific photographs of the drug war. And I saw things that you cannot really turn your gaze [from]. It haunts you, so I felt, OK, I really need to figure out what is going on here. But by the time I got to the Philippines in late 2017, because I was rolling out my previous film, a lot of people were already on the ground doing films about the drug war, and a lot of films about the drug war have since been released.”
The filmmaker, known for Motherland and her work on Independent Lens and P.O.V., didn’t want to tell the same story that other directors were focusing on, so she started reading the news coming out of the Philippines for a different angle. That’s when she came across the story of Ressa.
“I knew I wanted to cover the Philippines under Duterte, but I looked around and found Maria,” she said. “She was the loudest voice speaking out against the president, calling him out, calling out the numbers in the drug war, but more than that she was also talking about this information. And that I thought made it a more global story because that’s happening everywhere. … You have to realize she started talking about this in 2016 before anyone has really talked about algorithms, Facebook, fake news, all that.”
A Thousand Cuts, her finished film for PBS Distribution and Frontline, has several themes, including the drug war, press freedom and the rise of authoritarianism. Diaz’s movie moves beyond the violence in the streets over the sale of drugs (a topic she finds “othering” because it happens so far away from American TV viewers) and instead finds international connections to other societies and governments.
“With this other layer of disinformation, it brings it home,” Diaz said. “It resonates more — I think in more places. When I found Maria I was just compelled by her story and how she was calling him out. Of course, as production began, and we got deeper into production, I realized, yeah, it is really global. It’s happening everywhere.”
Of course, there was concern about Diaz and her team covering a journalist who was being investigated by the government. Was there a chance the filmmaker, who is based in the United States, could be swept up in the case as well? For Diaz, there were many conversations with her team members about safety.
“We did talk about it,” she said. “[When] the person you’re following starts putting on bulletproof vests, you start questioning, oh wait, just a minute, what are we doing here? And so we had a talk, especially with the local crew. … It was very touching actually when they said, ‘No, we’re good. It’s the right story to tell.’ They’re very proud of being a part of the film, and in terms of covering Maria, of course, there was, oh my God, should we also have bulletproof vests? But we said it’s harder to work with bulletproof vests. Honestly you can’t really run around with bulletproof vests, and to me I would always regret if I didn’t do it. It’s one of those stories, what am I doing this for? Why am I a documentary filmmaker if I can’t even be brave enough to tell this story?”
Diaz’s film expands beyond Ressa and also features government officials and voices from other sides of the issue. For example, there is pop-star-turned-government-secretary Mocha Uson and Gen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. It was important for the filmmaker to have a variety of subjects — all of whom fascinated the director.
“In the beginning, my idea for the film was this ensemble cast, this sort of Robert Altman-esque kind of film, and Short Cuts was actually very much in my head,” she said. “But as production went on, as often happens, you have a gravitational center to the film, and Maria became that. But by then I had already gotten access to Mocha, for example. Mocha fascinated me — a singer/dancer becomes a member of the administration and is the alleged ‘Queen of Fake News.’ I just wanted to know what made her tick. She seemed to me not a crazy person. She’s not a crazy person. It’s easier if they’re crazy, but I think it’s more dangerous if you just dismiss someone as crazy. I just wanted to know what made her tick. Neither do I want to be an apologist for her. I don’t want to be that. Because she understands the power of film and the power of narrative, she said yes. She understands — very meda-savvy.”
Dela Rosa was running for a senate seat and had seen Diaz’s film on Imelda Marcos, the controversial politician, and he wanted to be involved in the documentary. “I made it very clear to them that I was also covering Maria Ressa, who they perceive as the other side,” Diaz said. “She’s really not the other side. She’s independent media, but because Duterte was targeting her, then she was perceived as some kind of opposition when she wasn’t really. I was very clear. The president knew I was making this film because I was in touch with the spokesperson for the palace. I think their knowledge of me making the film was actually good for us because we weren’t hiding. So we were very much in the radar, and that protected us I think.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
A Thousand Cuts, directed by Ramona S. Diaz, is now available virtually from PBS Distribution and Frontline. Click here for more information.
