Arts and Culture

Mike De Leon retrospective opens at New York's Museum of Modern Art

Kristofer Purnell - Philstar.com

November 1, 2022 | 11:42am

Several films by Mike De Leon will be screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City

Museum of Modern Art

MANILA, Philippines — The works of seasoned filmmaker Mike De Leon make up a new retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City for the whole month of November.

This will be the first time such an exhibit — organized by MoMA Department of Film curator Joshua Siegel — will be held in North America, with MoMA calling De Leon "one of Filipino cinema’s most fiercely political and dramatic storytellers."

Apart from De Leon's feature films and shorts, the "Self-Portrait of a Filipino Filmmaker" retrospective will also feature classic melodramas, musicals, costume dramas and noir films of the 1930s to 1960s by LVN Pictures.

The studio was founded in 1938 by De Leon’s grandmother, Narcisa Buencamino-De Leon or more fondly called Doña Sisang. Many in LVN's library have not survived over the years, some even in poor condition. MoMA will still present these materials for the benefit of museum visitors.

These include "Mutya ng Pasig," which opens the retrospective, "Malvarosa," "A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino," "Anak Dalita," "Pag-Asa," "Giliw Ko," "Huk sa Bagong Pamumuhay" and "Ibong Adarna."

Some of De Leon's works that will be at the retrospective include his debut film "Itim," "Batch '81," "Sister Stella L.," "Citizen Jake," and the short film "Signos." Award-winning director Isabel Sandoval will introduce "Kisapmata," which is also included in the retrospective.

Other films by the filmmaker that will screen at MoMA's Debra and Leon Black Family Film Center are "Bayaning 3rd World," "Hindi Nahahati Ang Langit" and "Kakabakaba Ka Ba?"

"Self-Portrait of a Filipino Filmmaker" will also feature rare behind-the-scenes production footage from "Itim," "Kung Mangarap Ka't Magising" and "Maynila, sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag" where De Leon served as a cinematographer and producer; the latter two films will also be presented.

A restored version of "Itim" was screened at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and will be part of this year's QCinema Film Festival.

On the remastered release of his first film, De Leon said in a statement that horror "is no longer about a ghost but about the monsters of Philippine politics, monsters that, after a long wait in the subterranean caverns of hell, have returned to ravish and rape the country all over again. The crazy thing is that we invited them back.”

MoMA describes De Leon's work as a mixture of "melodrama, crime, supernatural horror, slapstick comedy, and the musical with blisteringly critical stances toward the Philippines' history of corruption and cronyism, state-sponsored violence, feudalist exploitation, and populist machismo."