Wednesday, 17 February
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Australia, 2009, 111 min
English, Tetum, Portuguese, Indonesian
Director: Robert Connolly
Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Oscar Isaac, Nathan Phillips, Damon Gameau, Gyton Grantley, Tom Wright, Mark Leonard Winter, Bea Viegas

Distributor: Madman Entertainment Inc, www.madman.com.au

Based on the book “Cover-Up” by Jill Jolliffe (2001), Balibo is the story of five Australian journalists who went missing just weeks prior to Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in 1975, and the efforts of one man determined to find out what happened to them. Balibo is a momentous piece of storytelling, driven by powerhouse performances and sublime direction.

Traditional Timorese songs form a powerful part of the soundtrack and include a children’s choir from Timor opening the film with the powerful O HELE HO, the Fretilin military anthem FOHO RAMELAU, and the political song KOLELE MAI. The film concludes with Ego Lemo’s BALIBO, a Tetum language song composed for the film describing the experiences of the Balibo Five journalists the night before they were to die.

Emotionally engaging from start to end, this is a profound cinematic experience that sheds damning light on a 35 year old blind-spot in Australasian history.

-Courtesy Anders Wotzke in cutprintreview.com

BALIBO Official Film Trailer from Footprint Films.

IMDB Website | Official Movie Website | Variety Review | Download Poster

Wednesday, December 2
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

In 1902, with the last of the Filipino generals surrendered or captured, the American annexation was complete, and the civilian government of William Howard Taft was established. But pacification was still far from over. Throughout the first decade of American rule, several patriotic Filipinos continued the resistance. A shining example was General Macario Sakay who, in 1902, proclaimed the Supreme Government of the Tagalog Archipelago with himself as President and Commander-in-Chief. In his manifesto, he declared a free Tagalog Archipelago which included all the towns and provinces of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. He claimed that his Tagalog Republic was a continuation of Bonifacio’s Katipunan which started the Philippine Revolution in 1896.

In this dramatization of the life of Macario Sakay, director and writer Raymond Red builds the case for a nationalist who envisioned a free and independent Philippines at a time when most of the ilustrado Filipino leaders had opted to collaborate with the new colonizers to protect their own personal interests. Sakay’s resistance turned out to be the last episode in the Philippine-American War. Sakay was an Official Selection at the 1994 Asian Film Festival in Singapore.

This film was translated and subtitled by Pia Arboleda, Assistant Professor of Filipino and Philippine Literature, Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures, University of Hawai’i.

IMDB Website | Philippine History Group Review | Download Poster