As timely as today’s headlines

Lovi Poe

“Deadline,” a film about media killings, will have a special screening tonight (Friday) at 7 in Cinema 10, SM North Edsa, Quezon City.

Directed by Joel Lamangan and written by Boni Ilagan, “Deadline” revolves around two idealistic reporters, Azad (Allen Dizon) and Claire (Ina Feleo) in a provincial newspaper, who cross paths with a jaded journalist, Ross Rivera (TJ Trinidad), and a TV newscaster (Lovi Poe) whose boyfriend, a crusading newsman, has been murdered.

In the course of the film—which consciously mirrors current events—the personal circumstances and convictions of the four journalists are affected by the web of political violence that has claimed the lives of their colleagues.

Ross, an apologist for public offi cials, is bothered by his conscience after discovering that local warlord-governor Muntazir Ghazi (Tirso Cruz III) is involved in election fraud and the spate of media killings.

Azad and Claire’s idealism incurs the ire of Ghazi, prompting him to hunt and eventually abduct the two.

“Deadline” is a timely attempt to give audiences a general overview of media killings without having to wade through voluminous case files and news articles or attend snail-paced court proceedings.

The movie’s pitfall is its tendency to rely on the elements of soap opera to get its point across. Moviegoers may be taken aback by the surfeit of tears, blood and gore. But perhaps that’s the effect Lamangan and writer Bonifacio Ilagan would like to achieve—the more gory the images, the better for people to remember and help do something about the atrocities.

It might serve as a cinematic eye-opener in the light of the continuing violence committed against journalists, including victims of the recent, infamous Maguindanao Massacre.

Proceeds of tonight’s screening will go to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines’ (NUJP) welfare fund. Rupert Francis Mangilit, Contributor