‘ A THOUSAND CUTS’
BALT I MORE-BASED film maker Ramon aD iazh as been making movies about her native Philippines since she began her documentary career in the late 1990 s. One of her first subjects was the island nation’ s larger-than-life former first lady, Imelda Marcos. Yet the familiar terrain was full of surprises when she returned in 2018, intending to film a mosaic-like saga set against strongman president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war.
“I always had it as this Robert Altman- esque ‘ Short Cuts’ kind of story ,” Di a zs aid. Her film ,“A Thousand Cuts ,” still has some of that structure but became an urgent portrait of crusading journalist Maria Ressa, whose website Rappler has been targeted by the government for its reporting. Ressa, pictured above, had been arrested and was becoming a global f igure when Time magazine named her one of its persons of the year in 2018.
“Those were gifts from the documentary gods, which you have to pay attention to,” said Diaz, whose project also holds up an uncanny mirror to the world beyond Manila as it details what she calls “the weaponization of social media.”
Ressa is free on bail while she appeals a prison sentence of up to six years for cyberlibel, and she faces a series of other charges. She has become a symbol of resistance against Duterte’s authoritarian rule. “She could possibly go to jail for 100 years,” said Diaz, who captures the journalist’s stirring resilience. “She is f ighting it all the way.”