Cinema After Cinema: Filipino Director Lav Diaz and His Independence

The films of Filipino auteur Lav Diaz are cinematic epics, chronicling the nation's centuries-long struggles with colonialism and its aftermath, and the ramifications of Ferdinand Marcos' deadly decades-long dictatorship. But they are epic in scope as well, most of them unfolding over anywhere from five to ten hours. Gabrielle Finnane surveys not only the themes and techniques that characterise the director's oeuvre, but also the political intent behind them.

Additional keywords: A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, Norte, the End of History, From What Is Before, West Side Avenue, Evolution of a Filipino Family, Heremias, Book One: The Legend of the Lizard Princess, Death in the Land of Encantos, Melancholia, Butterflies Have No Memories, Elegy to the Visitor from the Revolution, Century of Birthing, Florentina Hubaldo, CTE, An Investigation on the Night That Won't Forget, Storm Children, Fyodor Dostoevsky, black-and-white, the Philippines, slow cinema.