So I reached to meet with her, and we met
So I reached to meet with her, and we met, and it became clear that she was a part of the story, but she was also part of sort of this quilt of a story. ’cause there are other people, there are other characters in the film. I thought they were all going to be of equal weight then. But, of course, fast forward to 2019 when I started real principal photography because I then decided I was gonna do it, I guess, a backdrop of the 2019 midterm elections. So I got to the ground February 12th. Was it February 12th? February 13th, Maria got arrested. And she actually… and I was in the country, and I was still waiting for my crew to get in the next week. And she texted me, and she said, “Ramona, if you’re not doing anything, can you come to headquarters because I’m getting arrested?” I’m like, “I think I can arrange to come to headquarters.” So one thing led to another, and pretty soon, I was allowed in detainment with her. And so it’s like catching lightning in a bottle. So from then on, the crew arrived and we were with her constantly until the end of elections until end of May. So we covered deeply for March. No, February, March, April, May. Yeah. Like four months. And she became the star. I mean, obviously, then it seems now so obvious, but that’s how she became more of the main character.
Talk a bit more about Maria. I mean, just what you were just saying just now about how she’s being detained, she’s being arrested, and she has the presence of mind and the calmness to text you. Obviously, she’s an extraordinary person in so many ways, but talk about how you came to know her over the course of those three, four months,
Maria is a journalist, right? She has covered war in Southeast Asia. So she has the real calm, calmness, no matter what’s going on. And she has this sort of irrepressible optimism. That is not through me a lot of times, because if you see in the film, right, she’s getting arrested and she jokes about it sometimes. So sometimes it’s like, “Oh my God, what’s going on.” But she’s that because she feels like that is her… If she cries and breaks down, then they would have won. And that’s a go-to, I think. Her go-to is to be optimistic and to really trust that the people okay maybe not the administration, but the lawyers and the judges will find it in themselves to really look at the case and see its illegality or read it for what it is to be fair. She really believes in justice and the fairness of people. And that’s like almost immovable for her. How I got to know her? I actually, I have this funny story. I don’t know if I’ve died, but I have this story of back in 2004 when I released my first film in Imelda. Imelda sued us in the Philippines because she did not want us to release a film in the Philippines. To make a long story short. I went to the Philippines, and I land in the Philippines. And the distributor had a PR person come to me and said, “These are the people that want to talk to you about the film and the case” And Maria Ressa was one of them. And she was them the face of CNN in Southeast Asia. She was CNN. She was like Wolf Blitzer of CNN in that region. So I’m like, “Oh my God.” I said, “Oh, wow, Maria Ressa wants to talk to me.” And they said, “Yeah, she doesn’t really like the film.” I’m like, “She doesn’t?” I said, “I don’t want to talk about the film. I want to talk about the court case.” They go, “No, no, no. She wants to talk about it,” I said, “I just don’t have the capacity for that. And I don’t want to litigate the film. I want to talk about the litigation before the card game.” So I told them to tell her I was busy. I turned it down, and they were like, “You don’t turn down, Maria Ressa.” I said, ” I may because I’m just so tired.” So fast forward, what is it? This was 2018. So 14 years later, right. I’m in her office, and I’m thinking, “Oh my God, she’ll never remember. She will never how will she has seen many lives since then.”
Yeah.
And, of course, she did. She brought it up. One of the first things she got out of bed, she goes, “Remember, you’re turned on by requests to be interviewed.” I’m like, “Huh, you remember them, then?” So I almost met her in ’04, and then I met her there. So that’s my history with Maria. So it started off in that manner.
It’s not just speaking truth to power. Sometimes it’s speaking truth to filmmakers, I guess.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And then we got, of course, when you shoot in such an immersive manner at first it’s a transactional relationship, obviously, but beyond that, it moves beyond that pretty quickly, especially if you’re constantly being arrested. And we traveled with her to New York, and we became friends, and she had to trust me and the crew completely. And that goes beyond just a transaction. It’s complete trust. And she decided to trust us. So I’m thankful.
Yeah. I mean, I think one of the things that makes that relationship of trust apparent are the scenes that you shoot with her and her family. And I wondered if you could talk a bit about those scenes and why you included them in the film and what you think their importance is. ‘Cause I think they are important.
Yeah. So there are two scenes with her sisters. I think they’re key as well because in one scene with Michelle and that happened late in the shoot, that happened way after we even wrapped in Manila. That happened over the summer I felt it was all the questions that the audience wanted to ask Maria. It’s like, “Why are you not afraid? What are you doing? How do you think about fear?” So it’s all the questions I wanted to know too, but it was Michelle who asked it. So that’s why I think it’s key because Michelle’s almost like the audience asking Maria. And the scene with the gown with Mary Jane, which I just love because it just makes her so human and that’s where he at,| simple she’ll wear something she wore a decade ago and never even think twice about it. It just doesn’t occur to her. That it’s an important thing. And I thought it just made her so human and that she is part of a family with siblings. And you have all these issues with your siblings, the same thing, that’s what siblings do, They. They needle, it’s what they do. So I thought they were key. And I think about Mary Jane until we got to New York, I didn’t know that she was like that, that was the first time we met her. And she was amazing.
The other thing, I think the films that those scenes show for me is just, what’s at stake for Maria I mean, all this could go away if she’s arrested and they put her in jail and throw away the key which doesn’t seem that farfetched.
And also if she, that happens to her, it has a ripple effect, she has family that are scared shit. I mean, there are all these other people around her, so she’s not…she has context, but she has all these relationships.
You said something before about how Maria retains a sense of optimism because of the other institutions of government, the courts, and the lawyers, and so on. And I’m curious if you yourself have that same confidence in the other democratic institutions in the Philippines. And just kind of where you see things heading.
I don’t think I’m as optimistic as Maria, but one thing though, I mean, I’ve seen some of the judges, they seem reasonable to me. I don’t know what the pressures are on them, but they seem like reasonable people. So I have to believe in them as individuals. But the institution itself, the Supreme court it’s stacked against Maria, is full of Duterte people. So is Congress, right? So is the Senate, now after the midterm elections. So I don’t have a lot of faith. I wish I had. And then recently a month ago, or maybe a couple of weeks ago, Duterte shut down the largest broadcasting company in the Philippines, ABS-CBN. So it’s like if Trump shut down CBS or ABC. That’s amount to that.