Cries and whispers

Forgetting, whether purposeful or unintentional, is the most atrocious and offensive deed man can do, not just to himself but also to past and future generations. As George Orwell wrote, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

In the attempt to seek the motivation behind our actions, we listen to the voices and stories of our past. In this issue, we turn to archaeology, a relatively young field of study in the Philippines, to unravel fragments of our identity as a nation. We also talk to two significant figures of Philippine cinema to seek answers. For Kidlat Tahimik, our upbringing and culture prompt our thoughts and actions. Lav Diaz, on the other hand, allows viewers to understand the present through a return to the darkest times of our past.

“Bakit nauulit ang

kasaysayan?” John Lloyd Cruz’s Isagani asks Padre Florentino in Lav Diaz’s Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis. “The issue is ignorance,” Diaz offers. But as we discovered in the making of this issue, there is hope.