Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been nothing less than a monster during his time in office, ordering thousands of extrajudicial killings of anyone he claims uses or sells drugs, though critics have said these street murders are a de facto war on the poor. Duterte has also tightened his grip on a free press by intimidating and arresting reporters. In this immersive documentary by Ramona S. Diaz, who previously made the equally startling yet intimate Motherland (about the Manila-based, world's largest and busiest maternity hospital), we see numerous times Duterte comes right out and says to journalists and others, "I'm going to kill you."
Doing their jobs in spite of these dark threats are the investigative reporters of Rappler, a Philippines news organization co-founded by Maria Ressa, a former CNN bureau chief in Manila and one of several journalists (including Jamal Khashoggi, murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul) named Time's Person of the Year in 2018. Ressa, 56, was born in the Philippines but largely raised in the U.S. Unlike her sister (whom we meet in a funny scene where she tries to convince Ressa to wear a slinky gown to receive an award), Ressa chose to return to her native country. With self-effacing humility and unyielding optimism, she has covered the nation's trend toward authoritarianism while dealing with Duterte's wrath and her recurring arrests and detentions. We see her repeatedly questioning Duterte at press briefings and during one-on-one interviews, and he is shockingly blunt about the consequences she should anticipate for challenging him. (Ressa was found guilty in June of this year of "cyber libel," for a story Rappler published about a Duterte ally.)
Diaz also follows the travails and professional courage of a younger Rappler staffer, Pia Ranada, who has to petition the Supreme Court to get press access to official events related to a 2019 midterm election. Duterte attempts to stuff that election with bizarre and frightening candidates, including a pop singer named Mocha Uson, who has no governing experience whatsoever. Diaz manages to get good access to the other side of things, too, including a ride-along with a campaign bus for a Senate candidate, a Mussolini-like former police chief who throws candy to children and says he'd be proud to kill for Duterte. In the end, despite the gathering darkness, it's Ressa's eternal hopefulness that sticks with you and lights a candle in a world full of tyrannical impulses. Strongly recommended. Aud: I, J, H, C, P. (T. Keogh)