Pinoy Weekly - Featured Political Film | Behn Cervantes’ “Sakada”

Posted: 15 Aug 2013 09:23 AM PDT Behn Cervantes (middle), still at it, during the protest rally commemorating Martial Law, last September 21, 2012 in Manila, PH. (Macky Macaspac/PW File Photo) (Editor’s Note: Today, Pinoy Weekly Online will feature a new cultural column/space. It is called Sinewaya, formerly a film collective that previously maintained a blog, and is now a Facebook page featuring videos of (progressive) political cinema from around the world. No copyright infringement intended; Sinewaya will just share videos already available and uploaded on the web.) It was announced today that Filipino theater and film director and activist Behn Cervantes had died. Behn was a towering figure in the cultural resistance against the Marcos dictatorship, having directed numerous anti-Martial Law theatrical productions. He himself engaged in the political struggle against the dictatorship, and was arrested and jailed many times for it. One of his outstanding contributions to the Filipino cultural resistance was the film “Sakada”, which came out when Marcos was still at the zenith of his dictatorial powers in 1976. The film boldly tackled, through his characters and a melodramatic narrative familiar to many Filipinos, the brewing rural unrest and resistance against the backward semi-feudal system and fascist repression. Farewell, Behn. You fought a good fight. Here is the film “Sakada” uploaded on YouTube. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 ***********