Lino Brocka

Catalino Ortiz Brocka (April 3, 1939 – May 22, 1991) was a Filipino film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential and significant filmmakers in the history of Philippine cinema. His filmography often addressed the country's societal issues, and despite his initial closeness with the Marcos family, his work eventually grew to have anti-authoritarian themes in opposition to the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

He co-founded the organization Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), dedicated to helping artists address issues confronting the country, and the Free the Artist Movement.^{[better source needed]} He was a member of the Coalition for the Restoration of Democracy.

He directed landmark films such as Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang (1974), Manila in the Claws of Light (1975), Insiang (1976), Bona (1980), Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim (1984), and Orapronobis (1989). His body of work consisted of popular and political melodramas. After his death in a car accident in 1991, he was posthumously given the National Artist of the Philippines for Film award for "having made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts." In 2018, Brocka was identified by the Human Rights Victims' Claims Board as a Motu Proprio human rights violations victim of the Marcos Martial Law Era.

Brocka was born in Pilar, Sorsogon. He grew up and lived in San Jose, Nueva Ecija and graduated from Nueva Ecija High School in 1956. He attended the University of the Philippines and began working in theatre, acting and directing plays where his career in cinema and television followed suit. Brocka was openly gay, and a convert to Mormonism. He joined the Mormon Church and lived on Mokoka'i for a year, tending to lepers, in an attempt to find answers regarding his homosexuality, but shortly after he returned to Manila after seeking closure.

He directed his first film, Wanted: Perfect Mother, based on The Sound of Music and a local comic serial, in 1970. It won Best Screenplay at the 1970 Manila Film Festival. Later that year, he also won the Citizen's Council for Mass Media's best director award for the film Santiago!

In 1974, Brocka directed Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang ("You Have Been Weighed and Found Wanting"), which told the story of a teenager growing up in a small town amid its petty and gross injustices. It was a box office success and earned Brocka another Best Director award, this time from the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS).

The following year, he directed Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag ("Manila in the Claws of Light"), which is considered by many critics, including British film critic and historian Derek Malcolm, to be the greatest Philippine film ever made and is further acknowledged as the opening film of the golden age.

The film tells the allegorical tale of a young man from the provinces, Julio Madiaga, who goes to Manila looking for his lost love, Ligaya Paraiso. The episodic plot has Julio careering from one adventure to another until he finally finds Ligaya. This work provokes dialogue about human rights violations and Marcos' rising autocratic rule through micro-narratives of the country's underclass, dark and cramped metropolitan feel, and seedy and impoverished locations. Much of the film's acclaim is for the excellent cinematography by Mike de Leon, who would later on direct landmark films such as Kisapmata and Batch '81. The film won the FAMAS Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in 1976.