"Sardonic and rebellious Filipino filmmaker Lino Brocka and the tribulations of his impoverished but bustling homeland are the intertwined subjects of this engrossing, informative, and entertaining documentary by New York-based Christian Blackwood. Through interviews with the portly, self-effacing Brocka, clips from his films, documentary footage shot in and around Manila, and segments featuring Brocka at work on a new film, Blackwood draws a portrait of a complex man whose life in many ways personifies the recent history of the Philipines. Evincing a personality at once slyly humorous and gravely serious, Brocka speaks frankly but unpretentiously about the triumphs and compromises in his movie-making career, his political activism and homosexuality, his bitterness towards the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos and spouse Imelda (whom he expresses a fervent desire to execute) and the terrible cycle of poverty, despair, and violence from which his nation is still trying to break free." Variety