Manila by Night

by Joel David, series edited by Matthew Hays & Thomas Waugh

tagged: history & criticism, reference, southeast asia

Description

A Queer Film Classic on a controversial 1980 film by queer Filipino filmmaker Ishmael Bernal.

A Queer Film Classic on Ishmael Bernal's 1980 film that follows a dozen characters, all denizens of Manila's sordid yet exuberant underworld, as they pursue life, love, and pleasure. Bernal cited Robert Altman's Nashville as one of the influences on his epic, multi-narrative approach to cinema, and Manila by Night ultimately won the Best Picture award from the Filipino Film Critics. But upon completion, the film was banned in the Philippines by the tyrannical Marcos regime for its "unsavory" depiction of life in the Philippine capital, beginning an arduous journey through repression and censorship before finally being released by the government as proof of its more tolerant policies on the eve of the "People's Power" uprising of 1986.

David's book explores the political, cultural, and historical ramifications of this important film.

QUEER FILM CLASSICS is a critically acclaimed film book series on many of the most important and influential films about and by LGBTQ people, made in eight different countries between 1950 and 2005, and written by leading LGBTQ film scholars and critics.

About the Authors

Joel David is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Inha University, South Korea. He holds a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies at New York University. The author of several books on Philippine cinema, he has won the Manila Critics Circle's National Book Award for Film Criticism, among other prizes. He was founding Director of the University of the Philippines Film Institute.

Matthew Hays is a Montreal-based critic, author, and university and college instructor. His articles have appeared in a broad range of publications. His first book, The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers (Arsenal Pulp Press), was cited by Quill & Quire as one of the best books of 2007 and won a 2008 Lambda Literary Award. He is co-editor (with Thomas Waugh) of Queer Film Classics, a series of monographs for Arsenal Pulp Press on LGBTQ films; titles in the series include Paris Is Burning, Strangers on a Train, Law of Desire, and Female Trouble. He is the film instructor at Marianopolis College, and also teaches courses in journalism, communication studies, and film studies at Concordia University, where he received the Concordia Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence in 2007 and the President's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013.

Thomas Waugh is the award-winning author or co-author of numerous books, including five for Arsenal Pulp Press: Out/Lines, Lust Unearthed, Montreal Main: A Queer Film Classic (with Jason Garrison), Comin' At Ya! (with David L. Chapman), and Gay Art: A Historic Collection (with Felix Lance Falkon). His other books include Hard to Imagine, The Fruit Machine, The Romance of Transgression in Canada, and The Perils of Pedagogy: The Works of John Greyson. He is co-editor (with Matthew Hays) of Queer Film Classics, a series of monographs for Arsenal Pulp Press on classic LGBTQ films; titles in the series include Paris Is Burning, Strangers on a Train, Law of Desire, and Female Trouble. He is Professor Emeritus at Concordia University in Montreal,where founded the Concordia program in sexuality studies, the Concordia HIV/AIDS Project, and Queer Media Database Canada Quebec (mediaqueer.ca).

About BC Books Online

Manila by Night

by Joel David, series edited by Matthew Hays & Thomas Waugh

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