Defining Moments
Posted: 10:09PM (Manila Time)
Aug. 24, 2003  Inquirer News Service
by: Noel U. Torre

THE COUNTRY marked the 20th anniversary of Ninoy Aquino's heroic death last Aug. 21. The special observance brought up a diverse range of memories, issues and insights, depending on people's varying points of view.

For our part, the occasion triggered the sad realization that, despite the gifted filmmakers in our midst, no movie has been made about Ninoy's supreme sacrifice, 20 long years after his death.

We hope that this glaring lack will be addressed this coming film season by a perceptive and committed writer and director, and that a similarly resolute producer finances the long-delayed film bio.

The Filipino movie industry owes it to the country to come up with a well-produced and insightful feature film on Ninoy Aquino, and on what his life and death have meant to the Filipino people.

Twenty years after the fact, now is the time to come up with that filmic dramatization and assessment, especially for the benefit of viewers too young to have witnessed the tumultuous events of the '70s and '80s for themselves.

To be sure, Ninoy Aquino was a controversial man who meant radically different things to different people. All the more reason, then, for gifted film people to dare to take on the daunting challenge of doing justice to such a complex character, within the many contexts that people have put him in through the years.

Ninoy's incarceration and death were such defining moments for the country that a movie about him wouldn't be limited merely to a faithful narrative of his life and martyrdom.

In a greater sense, the movie would be about the Filipino nation itself, because of what it has seen fit to remember, and what it has chosen to forget.