Today is the 79th birth anniversary of Lino Brocka, National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts
By refurbishing and constantly reworking the melodramatic genre, Catalino “Lino” Ortiz Brocka articulated his people’s collective memory, bleeding through detailed images of daily experiences of characters that cling to the slightest rays of hope after a series of trials, persecutions, and sufferings. His protagonists always redeem their future in much the same way that his films redeem the nation’s dreams and aspirations.
So cleverly, he circumvented and broke the rules to cut across his aesthetic wisdom under any circumstance. While directing classics like Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang, Maynila: Sa Kuko ng Liwanag, Insiang, Bayan Ko, Gumapang Ka sa Lusak and Macho Dancer, Brocka was waging battles with both individual and institutional apparatuses that stifle artistic freedom, oppress his people, and exploit his nation.*
