PEPE DIOKNO

AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER AND WRITER

TO TELL A STORY AS ONLY A FILIPINO CAN.

Pepe Diokno, was only all of 21 years old, when he garnered several awards for Engkwentro, among them Lion of the Future and Best Picture from the Venice Film Festival, and best Asia Film from the Jeonju International Film Festival. He certainly takes after his grandfather, the great Senator Jose “Pepe” Diokno, who finished college at the age of 17 and went on to take and pass the bar exams without finishing a formal law degree. The older Pepe’s legacy was in human rights and whether a product of genes or fate, it is the same theme that fuels the younger Pepe’s winning film. The story of two teenagers on the run from state-sponsored vigilantes, it asks the damning question, “What if the price of peace and order was death?”

During the Venice Film Festival, the movie bested Tom Ford’s A Single Man and several Chinese big-budget films, selected by a panel presided by Ang Lee.

When asked if film (at least in the Philippines) is dead, Pepe nonchalantly retorts, “How much time and how many words do you have? No, it’s not dead. What we have now is that independent cinema and mainstream cinema are coming together. You have the more mainstream outfits working with independent directors. You have independent films pushing the boundaries and mainstream studios trying to get them to audiences.”

His optimism extends to the future, “What I want to do is to set up a Hollywood-type system here. The same way Peter Jackson did after he made

Lord of the Rings. He went back and he brought so much to New Zealand. So now, so many Hollywood films are being made there. Fernando Meirelles made

City of God in Brazil and now so many films are being made in Brazil.”

And after the success of his debut feature film, Pepe is now busy with Above the Clouds.

It’s a story about a boy, who, after losing his parents to a typhoon, has to reconnect with his grandfather. In case of Pepe, he doesn’t have to look very far.—MY