Ramona Diaz

Ramona Diaz on Imelda!*

Ramona Diaz, who grew up in Manila and then made movies, gets charmed by the Madame in this NYTimes article. She asked for a 15 minute interview but ended up talking with her for more than four hours. Here is an accompanying review. There's also an article in today's Inquirer about the movie, which will be released in Manila come July, in time for the Madame's 75th birthday. Tony Gloria's Unitel Pictures, which produced Crying Ladies, is the distributor.

And while we're at it, in the article, Tony Gloria mentions that at the half year mark of 2004, only 20 Filipino movies would have graced the screen. That's roughly 25% of the production of what we had last year. These days, the competition is not just Hollywood, but the other Asian countries like Thailand which previously did not register a beep in our pop culture consciousness. Now the Thais are making sci-fi movies and the cheesier horror flicks. We can laugh all we want about the "I am lonely says the acacia tree," but Thailand and Korea are kicking our asses in the celluloid battles.

*Because I feel like her life should be made into a mondo musical with singing and dancing shoes and a Dahil Sa 'Yo aria.