‘And So It Begins’: How Leni docu reflects ongoing change
The documentary film about former Vice President Leni Robredo’s presidential campaign wasn’t always called “And So It Begins.” Its working title was “This Is How It Ends.”
The change was prompted by conversations between Robredo and the film’s director, Emmy-winning Filipino filmmaker Ramona Diaz.
“We both asked ourselves, iti-treat ba natin ‘yun na end na talaga ng movement natin (We both asked ourselves, are we going to really treat it as the end of our movement)?” Robredo recalled at the talkback following the film’s Philippine premiere on the penultimate day of this year’s Cinemalaya film festival.
She had no alternative title in mind. “Hindi ko alam ano ang isa-suggest na bagong title pero alam ko na dapat hindi siya ‘This Is How It Ends’ (I didn’t know what title to suggest but I knew it should not be ‘This Is How It Ends’).”
In an online interview for this piece, Diaz said they kept the original title throughout postproduction “because it seemed appropriate, given that VP Leni lost the election.” It only changed as they cut the film and had conversations, and everyone agreed it needed “to end on a hopeful note.”
“‘And So It Begins’ echoes what VP Leni says at the end [of the film],” said Diaz. “Titles always come at the end—the title is influenced by the final locked picture and never the other way around.”
The final locked picture is not a memorial. It treats the 2022 national elections as an essential, if painful, part of a living, breathing history that continues to unfold. It saw the start of a unique kind of grassroots-led movement for development and national renewal among a big segment of the population (official count per the Commission on Elections: over 15 million Filipinos) that remains alive.
More appropriate
“‘Di ba mas appropriate?” Robredo asked rhetorically about the title at the premiere, noting how her presidential campaign immediately led to the birth of the Angat Buhay nongovernment organization to carry through on the developmental goals of her work as vice president, as well as her campaign promise of continuing to uplift the lives of the people in the laylayan (fringes).
“And So It Begins” had its world debut at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in January, becoming the fourth Diaz title to screen in the popular annual international festival.
It followed “Imelda,” a biographical documentary about Imelda Marcos’ beginnings as a beauty contest winner and rise to fame/infamy as the wife of dictator, President Ferdinand Marcos; Special Jury Award winner “Motherland,” a documentary set at an overcrowded and under-resourced maternity hospital in Manila; and 2020’s “A Thousand Cuts,” a documentary on the Duterte administration’s war on the free press, specifically its persecution of Maria Ressa and her news organization, Rappler.
Audiences have not seen the last of Ressa in a Diaz film in “Cuts.” The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is a major part of “Begins,” which the writer-director-producer described as a companion film. “What you see is what she has talked about for the past years—disinformation and weaponization of social media—come to fruition and play out in real time,” said Diaz.
Essential watch
This is what makes the film an essential watch. By continuing to track the narrative of the press post-”Cuts” and juxtaposing it with the elections, “And So It Begins” paints an expansive portrait of a nation in flux in the last four years and plugs it into what’s happening in many parts of the world.
“Where are we today?” Ressa asked at the film’s premiere before giving her own answer.
“It’s far worse than we were in 2022 in terms of social media. The guardrails have been lifted and you’ll see this globally. We just finished a deep dive into the US information ecosystem. Americans are going to vote with the younger generation most at risk because they live on social media. That’s Gen Z.
“The fracture lines, the way disinformation works is it pounds open what is most visceral, what we believe in the most. We’re seeing this happen in the United States; at least seven layers of manipulation. But look at Bangladesh. Two of its youth leaders are now ministers. It’s strange. We live at this volatile time. The world is getting reoriented. The world needs to prove that a rules-based order is actually still in place. This is only the beginning of it.”
For Robredo, what “And So It Begins” depicts is the power of the long game.
“Ngayon ang panahon para maghabol tayo o i-correct ang mga mali natin at magkaroon ng mga wala tayo. Siguro ‘yung radical love ngayon, despite criticisms or misunderstanding sa kind of fight na ginagawa natin ngayon, patuloy lang tayo. I’m very happy to note na marami sa mga grupo natin buhay na buhay pa rin, quietly doing the work. ‘Yung pag-asa sa puso ko na, pag kinailangan ng panahon, nandyan pa rin kayo at handang handang lumaban para sa bayan. ‘Yun ang radical love for me. (Now is the time to catch up, to correct our mistakes and to fill in what we lacked. At this point in time, radical love, despite the criticisms or misunderstanding for the kind of fight that we’re doing now, means to just continue the work we started in the campaign. I’m very happy to note that many groups continue to be very active, quietly doing the work. The hope in my heart is that when the need arises to fight again for the country, you will still be there ready to fight. That’s what radical is for me.)”
“And So It Begins” opens in cinemas nationwide Aug. 21.
