Catalino Ortiz Brocka (April 3, 1939 – May 22, 1991) was a Filipino film director. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most important filmmakers in the history of Philippine cinema. Brocka directed over 60 films across two decades that span a variety of genres, with his acclaimed work combining elements of melodrama and social realism.
Brocka began his film career in 1970 by directing commercial genre films after a stint in theater and television. He first gained critical acclaim with Weighed But Found Wanting (1974) and Manila in the Claws of Light (1975), the latter of which is considered the greatest Filipino film of all time. Insiang (1976) was the first Philippine film to screen at Cannes Film Festival, followed by his other films Jaguar (1979) and This Is My Country (1984). Other notable films include Bona (1980), Cain and Abel (1982), Macho Dancer (1988), and Orapronobis (1989). While most of his films have critiqued the dictatorship of Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda Marcos, Brocka became politically active in his later years.
Brocka died on May 22, 1991, in a car accident. He was posthumously declared a National Artist of the Philippines in 1997.
Brocka was born on April 3, 1939, in Pilar, Sorsogon. He was the first of two children of Regino Brocka and Pilar Ortiz. Brocka's father worked as a boat builder, was politically active, and was married to a schoolteacher. While on a trip to the province of Nueva Ecija, Regino met Pilar, then 15, and deserted his family to live with her on an island off the coast of Sorsogon. After Lino was born out of wedlock, Regino was charged with bigamy by his legal wife and was sentenced to two years at Muntinlupa Prison (later New Bilibid Prison) in Metro Manila, during which Lino's younger brother Danilo was born three years later. After Regino was released, the family returned to Sorsogon.
Regino became a defining influence in Brocka's early life. Lino later recalled: "I have vivid memories of my father because I had a very good, very, very happy childhood. The island was like that in Blue Lagoon, the film which starred Jean Simmons." When he was six, Regino was killed in a suspected political murder. Faced with the prospect of raising her children alone, Pilar sought help from her family in San Jose, Nueva Ecija, where she left Lino with her sister. Lino suffered abuse from his aunt for four years until he ran away to live with his mother, who later became an elementary school teacher. To make a living, Lino and his brother sold sampaguita necklaces at the public market, where he would sing a song and let his tears fall on cue, enticing the audience to buy the necklaces. Brocka later depicted his childhood experiences in his 1977 film Tahan Na Empoy, Tahan.
Brocka graduated from Nueva Ecija High School in Cabanatuan in 1956. He initially studied law at the University of the Philippines Diliman as a scholar, but later became a working student after losing his scholarship. Brocka applied at the drama club under Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, but was rejected due to his thick accent and short height. Undeterred, he studied Hollywood films and learned how to speak in English until the drama club hired him as a stagehand.
Brocka first met future activist Behn Cervantes through the drama club. Cervantes introduced him to Mormon missionaries in 1961. Brocka dropped out of college, converted to Mormonism and went to Hawaii for a two-year mission. After finishing his missionary commitments, he attended the Mormon Church College of Hawaii for one semester. Brocka briefly stayed in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked as a bus boy and hospital orderly before returning to Manila in 1968 due to homesickness.
Brocka wrote press releases for a production company that filmed B movies in the Philippines. He was then introduced by Cervantes to Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, founder of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA). Brocka established his career with PETA, where he ran errands, wrote scripts, and led theater exercises until he became a director of several episodes of PETA's TV show Balintataw.
In 1970, Brocka was approached by a producer with Lea Productions about making his first feature film. He wrote and directed Wanted: Perfect Mother, a musical based on the comics serial by Mars Ravelo. It won Best Screenplay at the 1970 Manila Film Festival. Brocka's next film, Santiago!, was a war film starring Fernando Poe Jr. and featured PETA actors in minor roles and as extras. He won the Best Director Award from Citizen's Council for Mass Media (CCMM). His third film in 1970, Tubog sa Ginto, starred Eddie Garcia as a closeted homosexual and was based on another Ravelo comic serial. An early landmark of LGBTQ representation in Philippine cinema, the film won Brocka the Best Director award at the 1971 FAMAS Awards. The following year, Brocka co-wrote and directed the showbiz drama Stardoom, which won him the Best Director award from CCMM. He also directed the romance drama Cadena de Amor in the same year, which won seven prizes from the Manila Film Festival. The musical Now! (1971) and the romance drama Cherry Blossoms (1972), partly shot in Japan and starring Nicholas Hammond, opened to negative reviews.
Brocka directed a total of nine films, six of them for Lea, until 1972, when he went on a self-imposed hiatus. He continued working for PETA and taught classes in film, drama and speech. Two years later, he established the production company Cinemanila, vowing to create substantive films. "There's too much fantasy in the movies, too much escapism," he said. "Philippine films are wanting in content; they need more realism."
For Cinemanila's first film, Brocka returned to filmmaking with Weighed But Found Wanting, released in 1974. Shot on location, it starred Christopher de Leon in his first film role and was written by Mario O'Hara, who also played the leper Berto in the film. Weighed became a box office success and earned Brocka another Best Director award at the 1975 FAMAS Awards. It also led Mike de Leon, whose family founded LVN Pictures, to approach Brocka about adapting the novel In the Claws of Brightness by Edgardo M. Reyes, with de Leon as producer and cinematographer and Clodualdo del Mundo Jr. writing the screenplay. The result, Manila in the Claws of Light (1975), starred Bembol Roco in his first film role and was also shot on location. It won nine awards at the 1976 FAMAS Awards. Brocka achieved international success with the film, which has since been considered the greatest Filipino film of all time and ushered in the Second Golden Age of Philippine Cinema.
Brocka's next film, Insiang (1976), starred Hilda Koronel as the titular character and Mona Lisa as her mother. The film faced censorship issues after First Lady Imelda Marcos objected to its depiction of the slums in Tondo, Manila, although her daughter Imee Marcos helped sponsor the film's domestic premiere. Insiang became the first Philippine film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was placed in the Director's Fortnight section in 1978. It would later be considered one of Brocka's masterpieces.
In 1978, Brocka directed the comedian Dolphy as a gay beautician in Ang Tatay Kong Nanay, which became a commercial success and earned critical praise for Dolphy's performance.
Brocka made four films in 1979. Init starred Charito Solis, Rio Locsin, and frequent collaborator Phillip Salvador and was recut by censors for its sexual content, followed by Ina, Kapatid, Anak, a family drama starring Solis, Locsin, and Lolita Rodriguez. Jaguar, a neo noir crime film starring Salvador, was written by Pete Lacaba and Ricky Lee from the nonfiction story "The Boy Who Wanted to Become Society" by Nick Joaquin. It became the first Philippine film to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. American film critic Andrew Sarris praised the film: "The most pleasant surprise of the Festival so far has been Lino Brocka's Jaguar, a socially conscious film noir from, of all places, the Philippines." Jaguar won Best Picture and Best Director at the 1980 FAMAS Awards, while also winning five Gawad Urian Awards. Ina Ka ng Anak Mo was Brocka's first of three collaborations with Nora Aunor.