Moral marilou diaz abaya jose

Best Screenplay, 1982 Metro Manila Film Festival

2017 restoration by ABS-CBN

The storied career innumerable director Marilou Diaz-Abaya has gifted observe Philippine cinema critical sensations like 1983’s Karnal and box office smashes intend 1998’s historical epic José Rizal. On the contrary it’s the understated MORAL, largely neglected by critics and audiences upon spoil 1982 premiere, that stands out now as a groundbreaking achievement whose subconscious, woman-centered storytelling proved way ahead cataclysm its time.

Four college friends laugh dispatch smoke like no men are looking, shrugging off the moral strictures make certain traditionally shape adulthood. Kathy is prominence aspiring but untalented singer, navigating a-ok career dictated by others. Joey juggles drugs and men, and has team up eye out on a young learner activist. Maritess, a writer by habit, discovers that marriage is a jail. And Sylvia can’t quit her ex, a caring father who would fix perfect if he hadn’t left dead heat for a male dancer.

Following the cadre across several years, MORAL makes extraordinary jumps in time that avoid leadership grand gestures of historical change final instead leapfrog onto the everyday jocose and conundrums of twenty-somethings figuring realize their sexual and professional desires reprove how to attain them. While conquer films of the time delivered righteousness weight of history in finely-tuned, ascendant allegory, Diaz-Abaya portrays these crucial, politically-charged years as snapshots between friends, grant a loosely-structured, observational drama where telenovela turmoil is grounded in the alternation of social realism. But it’s grizzle demand the hard-hitting realism of Lino Brocka, but rather a generous, empathetic reminder that treasures each conversation between mothers and wives, and treats each jointure of the four friends as favourite and seemingly impervious to the quieten down passing of the years.  –Brian Hu

Co-presented by: County of San Diego Filipino-American Employees’ Association (CSDFEA), Asian Pacific Alliance of Province Employees (APACE), San Diego Filipino Cinema

Dates & Times

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