MANILA, Philippines?While shooting a TV commercial in Batanes, director Jun L. Reyes reviewed the footage of his new political documentary on his MacBook. As he scanned images from the nation?s recent history, Ivatan school kids who hovered around him quipped: ?Ay, si Ninoy!?
Reyes felt it was important to do the 55-minute docu ?The Last Journey of Ninoy.? ?Our goal is to introduce Sen. Benigno ?Ninoy? Aquino to a new generation of Filipinos who may only know him as the face on a P500 bill.?
The ?journey? in the film?s title went beyond Ninoy?s actual nine-day plane trip from Boston to Manila in 1983, Reyes explained. ?I just used the physical journey as device.?
From the start, former President Corazon ?Cory? Aquino, Ninoy?s widow, was clear on the film?s message, Reyes recounted. ?Her only instruction was to focus on Ninoy?s transformation from a worldly to a spiritual man.?
In a lot of ways, the docu also shows a glimpse of Cory?s own journey from wife to widow to President.
?Ultimately, it became the journey of two people,? he said. ?The story is told through two voices: Ninoy?s and Cory?s.?
Ninoy?s famous 1981 speech in Los Angeles formed the docu?s spine. Meanwhile, the senator?s brother Paul Aquino provided the voice as Ninoy in the narration and Ninoy?s nephew Bam Aquino portrayed the senator in the recreation scenes.
The docu also features Cory?s last sit-down interview, held on March 9, 2009, barely five months before her passing from colon cancer on August 1.
(She had two one-on-one sessions with the crew. The first was over three years ago, but she left priceless audio tapes that were earmarked for a book to be written on her.)
?The last interview was held in her office at the Cojuangco building in Makati,? Reyes said. ?We had to turn off the air-conditioner because of the noise. While everyone in the room was sweating bullets, Auntie Cory remained cool ... she was already undergoing chemotherapy then.?
The docu, produced by Unitel and the Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Foundation, will have screenings in Rockwell, Glorietta, Eastwood and other malls.
