Dario Bernal, Bong Cabrera, and Angela Azebedo during the shoot in Sampaloc, Quezon. (Photo courtesy of Bong Cabrera)
(‘Magellan’ returns to Gateway Cineplex, SM North Edsa and SM Mall of Asia, Jan. 30 to Feb. 3, 2026.)
IN our local celebrity-driven film society, some famous people we know in Manila just shook their heads in disbelief. How come they—who shall remain nameless for reasons of privacy—missed meeting Gael Garcia Bernal, one of the world’s most highly revered arthouse actors who successfully crossed over to Hollywood, when he went to a lesser-known town in Quezon Province and shot a film for two months?
Ronnie Lazaro, Hazel Orencio, Lav Diaz, and Bong Cabrera during a break from the shoot of ‘Magellan’ (Photo courtesy of Bong Cabrera)
We remember his coming-of-age role in the 2001 acclaimed romance comedy, Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien (available on Netflix), with real-life childhood friend Diego Luna and then Spanish vixen Maribel Verdú. The road movie was one of the cinematic highlights of our young adulthood, and over the years, we’ve imagined we’re the teenage characters played by Garcia Bernal and Luna.
We’ve learned they were both trained in theater during their early years in Mexico City before conquering world cinema. While Luna made it into Hollywood blockbusters like Rogue One: Star Wars, The Terminal, and most recently, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Garcia Bernal was more at home with arthouse films like The Crime of Padre Amaro, Amores Perros, The Motorcycle Diaries, Neruda, The Science of Sleep, and most recent, Lav Diaz’s Magellan.
Ronnie Lazaro as Raha Humabon in Lav Diaz’s ‘Magellan’ (Photo courtesy of Sine Olivia Pilipinas)
“Yes, we brought him here for Magellan. He loved eating pansit guisado (sautéed noodles), not habhab (stir-fried noodles meant to be eaten on banana leaf), which is a common dish here. His brother, Dario, loved sinigang. Pagala-gala lang sila dito, nagba-basketball, nag-videoke,” Diaz told The Diarist.
We caught up with Diaz one rainy afternoon mid-December in Sampaloc, Quezon, where he has taken up residence since 2022 and recently bought a piece of land in the hills to build a permanent home base. He just came from a trip to Paris the night before our informal interview in the front yard of a new apartment he’s renting, which, from the looks of it, also serves as a temporary stock room. His housemates are friends who are also staff members of his production company, Sine Olivia Pilipinas.
Garcia Bernal’s Filipino co-actor in Magellan, Bong Cabrera, shared how down-to-earth the Mexican actor was. During a lull in shooting, they had one videoke night with Garcia Bernal. Cabrera and fellow theater actor Sri Arjhay Babon sang Yoyoy Villame’s Magellan with Garcia Bernal, and as Cabrera attested, it became Garcia Bernal’s instant favorite song.
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Babon also shared with The Diarist.ph a video of Garcia Bernal and the Spanish and Portuguese actors with their Filipino counterparts playing basketball in an all-purpose amphitheater in Sampaloc. They had a really good time.
It wasn’t the first time the Mexican heartthrob shot a film in the Philippines. The first time was in 2009, for the shoot of Lukas Moodyson’s family drama Mammoth, which was partly filmed in Morong, Bataan, and Subic, Zambales. He played husband to Michelle Williams’ character. Mammoth also had Filipino theater actors Marife Necesito and Perry Dizon, who both appeared in Diaz’s earlier films.
We’ve been interviewing Diaz for three decades, and over the years, he has remained one of those rare subjects with whom every encounter yields sound insights and wisdom. While many are about pure ego, full of empty projections on how “deep, brave, and avant-garde” they are in their “art,” Diaz stands out by just being himself.
We’ve been interviewing Diaz for three decades, and over the years, he has remained one of those rare subjects with whom every encounter yields sound insights and wisdom
We learned Diaz and his team had just moved into the new apartment not so long ago. In the front yard where we had our informal interview, stacks of books lay on two tables behind him, beside travel bags and other household things that seemed to be randomly placed side by side.
“I read books to nourish my soul. So tuwing mamasyal ako sa ibang lugar, hina-hunting ko agad, kung saan tambakan ng mga lumang libro (Everywhere I go, I always hunt where I can find old books). Lately sa Paris, ang dami kong ninakaw na libro (I freely grabbed a lot of books),” he told The Diarist.
One of the remaining tree houses used in ‘Magellan.’ Despite efforts to preserve the wooden structures, a series of typhoons and bad weather has destroyed almost all of the nipa huts and tree houses. (Photo by Totel V. de Jesus)
One of the hanging wooden bridges that leads to the vast rice fields and the rolling forested hills surrounding the town proper of Sampaloc, Quezon. Diaz walks regularly around these villages for some cardio exercise and to clear his head. (Photo by Totel V. de Jesus)
Magellan was the Philippines’ entry to the 98th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category. Diaz and his team were in Paris to campaign to get the nod of European Academy voters. The voting happened from Dec. 8 to Dec. 15, 2025. He arrived in the Philippines near midnight on the 14th of December. On Dec. 16, 2025, it was announced that Magellan didn’t make it to the list of 15 films shortlisted for the Oscars. Diaz was cool about what happened. Whether Magellan makes it or not, he told us, what’s important is his continuing cultural struggle for Philippine cinema.
“Dampot dampot lang kung saan saan. Sisilipin ko mga titles mamya (I just picked them up randomly from places I’ve been. I’d look over the titles later),” he said of the books.
We clarified, what does he actually mean by “dampot dampot”?
“May pinuntahan kaming town malapit sa Paris noong isang araw, mga cinematheques na may screening ang pelikula ko. ‘Yung isang maliit na hotel na tinirahan namin may mga libro, kuha lang ako ng kuha. Nakikita nila binabasa ko. They didn’t mind. Then, yung isang hotel kung saan kami in-interview, ang daming libro, dampot lang ako ng dampot. Totoo yun. (We went to this town near Paris the other day where there’s a cinematheque showing some of my films. In a small hotel where we stayed, there were so many books and I just picked titles I liked. The hotel staff saw me reading them and they didn’t mind. Then in another hotel where I was interviewed, there were so many books. So, I grabbed more and brought them with me. That’s true),” he said, with emphasis on “Totoo yun,” sensing our doubt.
Diaz reasoned that they were like giveaways, and hotel guests were free to take books without returning them. It happened not only in Paris, though.
“Noong pumunta akong Malaysia, sa isang mall nila, may café na kasama sa interior design nila mga libro. Kape ako ng kape, dukot ako ng dukot. Kung anong titles na magustuhan ko. Wala namang CCTV. ‘Di naman nila ako ina-aresto. Parang pinapamigay lang (When I was in Malaysia, there was a café in a mall whose interior design included books. I kept drinking coffee and taking home the books. There was no CCTV and I didn’t get arrested. It’s like the books were giveaways for customers).”
He was in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in the 2025 ASEAN International Film Festival and Awards, held from Nov. 12 to 15, 2025.
“So, pag uwi ko sa Pilipinas, ang laman ng mga maleta ko puro libro na ninakaw ko lang kung saan saan. (So, when I got home, my luggage was full of books I stole from different places),” he said, laughing.
Actress-line producer Hazel Orencio, one of Diaz’s long-time staff who also lives in Sampaloc, along with other Sine Olivia people Ceecil Buban and Sanny Joaquin, told The Diarist they’d lost count of how many books Diaz keeps, not only in Sampaloc but in his condo unit in Marikina City.
Diaz has been known for making outrageously frank statements, bordering on hyperboles, or as he termed them, metaphors.
In an early morning interview by younger filmmakers Antonette Jadaone and JP Habac for their podcast channel, whose episode was uploaded in September 2025, Diaz constantly compared his creative process in filmmaking to self-pleasure, sending Jadaone, Habac, and studio audiences into a laughing fit. He even discussed the amount of semen released—according to studies, he said—during first ejaculation.
Funny moments during a talk-back session for ‘Magellan’ with (from left) New York Film Festival’s Dennis Lim, Gael Garcia Bernal, Lav Diaz, and translator Gil Quito (Screengrab from Lincoln Film Center You Tube channel)
Diaz during a talk-back session after a recent screening of ‘Magellan’ at American Cinematheque in New York (Photo from Asian Cinematheque Facebook page)
During a talk-back session in October, also last year, for Magellan at the Lincoln Center in New York, he was asked by New York Film Festival artistic director Dennis Lim how they got Garcia Bernal for the titular role. Diaz said Gael was the only choice, and the name that came up while he and Portuguese co-producers Joaquim Sapinho and Albert Serra were having a threesome.
“Noong nag-se-sex kami nina Joaquim Sapinho saka Albert Serra, napag-usapan namin na si Gael lang ang Magellan,” Lav said, which confused the translator, US-based Filipino screenwriter and film distributor Gil Quito.
Quito was dumbfounded for a while before seeking clarification, to which Diaz said “yes.” After Quito relayed the message to the audience in English, Lim quipped, “It’s an accurate translation.” After the audience, Garcia Bernal, and Lim got a good laugh, Diaz said it’s just a metaphor for brainstorming.
He added that the reason Garcia Bernal agreed to take on the role of Magellan is because they are both “motherf–kers,” which the dazed Quito translated well. Then again, just like how Quentin Tarantino used this term in his films and what it means in American street lingo, the term actually means awesome, fantastic, great to work with.
We’ve been used to Diaz’s proclivity for giving hilarious yet insightful answers.
READ: ‘I’m making films until I die’: The day I shot Lav Diaz
It was as early as July 2023 that we learned Garcia Bernal was the chosen actor, and that he’d come to the Philippines at some point for Magellan’s shoot. Diaz is known for keeping everything under wraps until the film is finished.
Somehow, we couldn’t help it when, in November 2024, there was one post on Instagram by a fan who witnessed the ongoing shoot of Magellan in Portugal, which had the original title Beatriz, Magellan’s wife.
At the time, we asked his permission if we could just mention Garcia Bernal’s name. He emailed me his answer: “Kung gagawan mo man ng kuwento, tipong ang anggulo ay nagtatanong ka lang marahil, halimbawa: ‘Totoo bang nagsusyuting na sina Tom Cruise at Roxlee? May katotohanan bang nagsasama na sina Khavn at Vice Ganda?’ Waring nag-iimbestiga ka lang, walang kumpirmasyon.” (If you’re going to write a story, the angle should be speculative, for example: Is it true that Roxlee and Tom Cruise are shooting a movie? How true is it that Khavn [dela Cruz] and Vice Ganda are living together?’ Make it like you’re investigating, no confirmation.)
Dela Cruz is married to fellow filmmaker-writer Achinette Villamor, and Vice Ganda to Ion Perez.
RELATED STORY: From Kamias Road to Europe: On the set with filmmaker Khavn de La Cruz
Dela Cruz and Lee are Diaz’s longtime friends and bandmates in the avant pop rock band, The Brockas, in which Diaz plays the electric guitar.
Then again, I decided not to write anything about it and wait for the right time.
Diaz’s original story was about Beatriz Barbosa (played by Angela Azevedo), and it was nine hours long. Somewhere along the way, he needed to trim and re-edit it for the world premiere in May last year at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. The result is the two-hour and 40-minute version, with the story focused on and retitled (Magalhães) Magellan.
For the interview I was aiming for when I caught up with him in Sampaloc, initially I thought it would be just for an hour, but like any Lav Diaz film, it stretched to nearly five hours, half of which I got on record. The other half, about two hours long, entails the utmost secrecy because of highly sensitive but extremely interesting topics, some classified information that I must carry to the grave.
Diaz’s original story was about Beatriz Barbosa (played by Angela Azevedo), and it was nine hours long. Somewhere along the way, he needed to trim and re-edit it for the world premiere in May last year at the 78th Cannes Film Festival
It’s not only books Diaz brought home this time. He was nursing a bad cold and coughing intermittently. He apologized if eventually, I’d catch some viruses and bring them home with me. He said he was sure he got the cold from a driver in Paris.
“Yung driver namin sa Paris, walang issue ng hygiene. Hatsing ng hatsing sa loob ng kotse, ‘di nagtatakip ng bunganga. Alam ko yung sarili ko eh. Kakagaling ko lang sa TB (tuberculosis). Before that, two times na ako nagka-pneumonia (Our driver in Paris was careless with his hygiene. He kept on sneezing without covering his mouth. I know myself. I just survived tuberculosis and before that, I had pneumonia twice),” he said.
Sometime in 2024, a few days before finishing Magellan, he said he was already suffering from TB and thought it would be his last film. “I was already vomiting blood. I thought I’d die sooner than my time, but I just kept on working and told myself, before I drop dead, I’ll finish the post-production work. At least, I fulfilled what I told you several years ago, that I’m going to make films until my last breath,” he said, in good humor.
He chose to stay in Sampaloc to recuperate for six straight months, all plans and scheduled projects cancelled. Even visits from some friends and well-wishers were politely declined, just to be careful from getting other viruses, at least those from the big city.
“Dito ako nagpagaling, mga six months (This is where I recuperated, about six months). Ang galing nila. They’re so good. We’re lucky we have this kind of place. Pati demeanor ng mga tao. Yung lugar mismo. Pati pag shooting namin dito. Masaya sila (They’re happy),” Diaz said. For his yet-to-be built home on the hills, aside from sleeping quarters for him and his crew, he has plans of allotting some spaces for post-production equipment, stock rooms, and an area for film workshops. Of course, we can imagine a big library for his books and DVD/Blue-Ray discs.
Sampaloc Mayor Nikko Devanadera (second from right) with (from left) Councilor Normandy Encina and ‘Phantosmia’ actors Sri Arjhay Babon, Ronnie Lazaro, Janine Gutierrez, and Dong Abay (Photo by Totel V. de Jesus)
In our earlier interview, the town’s mayor, Nikko Devanadera, said:,“When direk Lav had tuberculosis, he had his treatment here. Kaya naman naming i-treat because we have the necessary medical equipment to treat TB. Match na match nga eh. Our municipal health officer was the one who cleared direk Lav, that he’s free from TB. With regards to health care, our priority is to build a new hospital because what we have now is an infirmary. We are looking for a new site to build a hospital.”
It’s the cleaner air—at least compared with the city—and cooler climate that also helped Diaz recover. He gets his daily exercise by walking around the edges of the town, also to clear his mind. We wonder, do the Sampalukins still ask for selfies?
“They just let me be, whenever I take my daily walk up there (pointing to the hills that can be seen from his front yard) for two hours. I walk one hour going there and back here for another hour. Although it’s hard to do some walking now, because it’s December. Every day it rains here.
“This place is like the neighboring towns of Aparri and Abulog in Cagayan, where it also rains almost every day. There, sometime in 2014, we shot Mula sa Kung Ano Ang Noon (From What Is Before). If you need the rain, you go to places like this one. What I require in my films, nature provides. There are so many instances like that. Just wait, and the rain will come. Here, that always happens,” Diaz added.
“Si Gael, ayaw nya ng ulan eh (doesn’t like rain). Sabi nya, bakit ganito? What is this? This is insane!” Diaz added, laughing.
“Kasi sa kanila daw, sa lugar nila sa Mexico, every two weeks may isang malakas na ulan, OK na sa kanila. Dito, halos araw araw. Pero despite that, gustong gusto nila dito, the Spanish and Portuguese actors and crew. Pakalat kalat sila eh, ‘di alam ng mga tao na may pakalat kalat na Hollywood actor, kain sila ng kain ng pansit (In their hometown in Mexico, the rain comes once every two weeks, and they are OK with that. But here, it rains every day. Then again, they love it here in. They just walked around, this Hollywood actor, eating noodles).
“They were surprised to find tamales here. Gulat na gulat sila because it’s a Mexican dish. I had to explain to them about the Galleon Trade, the similarities of Filipino and Mexican dishes. Tamales came from Mexico. I had to explain to Magellan that it’s because of him that we have tamales. He paved the way,” Diaz said, laughing and coughing at the same time.
The town folk have been used to famous local actors who’ve been part of Diaz’s films. Janine Gutierrez, who acted in two films for Diaz, Ang Kawalan and Phantosmia, would sometimes just jog around the edges of the town. Besides the cooler climate, like in Baguio City or Sagada, Sampaloc has terrain that goes up and down. It’s ideal for jogging because there’s no vehicular traffic and the town proper is surrounded by trees and rivers.
“I did that twice lang naman,” Gutierrez told The Diarist during the 1st Sine Sampaloc Film Festival, where Phantosmia was shown for free for the town folks in the open-air municipal park. It was held from Dec. 11 to Dec. 14, organized by the local government, Cinemalaya Foundation, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Film, Broadcast, and New Media division under its Lakbay Sine program.
Chris Millado and the author after attending Sunday Mass in front of the centuries-old San Vicente Ferrer Parish Church. It was established in 1873 and renovated in 2020. (Photo by Totel V. de Jesus)
Millado checking out some souvenirs at the ‘buli’ handicrafts mini-factory in Sampaloc, Quezon (Photo by Totel V. de Jesus)
Millado updating his ‘Chris Eats World’ posts on his socials, among other ‘city concerns.’ Cellphone signal is not a problem even at the edge of Sampaloc town. (Photo by Totel V. de Jesus)
Surprisingly, there were Sampalukins who asked Chris Millado, festival director of Cinemalaya, for selfies. The retired vice president and artistic director of CCP has a small fan base. Diaz praised Millado, who was among the main organizers of the festival.
“When they found out I am based here and that I’m making films here, they started planning cultural activities. Si Chris, napaka-active nyan. Active yung mind ni Chris sa mga issues ng cultural work. He’s a doer, he accomplishes things, not just pure talk,” Diaz said.
“We’ve been promoting Sampaloc as a destination for making films, and direk Lav has always been a big factor because he keeps on mentioning Sampaloc in his interviews,” Mayor Devanadera said.
The town boasts peace and order, with nearly zero crime rate. “You can walk at midnight and rest assured you are safe. I’m proud to say police officers assigned here don’t want to be reassigned anymore to other places because it’s very peaceful here. The only complaints we usually get are dogs’ poop on the streets,” the mayor added.
Diaz discovered the beauty of Sampaloc because of their art director, Allen Alzola, who is a Sampalukin. “His family is from here and he grew up here. It’s also because of Hazel (Orencio), our all-around punong abala (person in charge). She and Allen were classmates in college sa PUP (Polytechnic University of the Philippines) and she’s been here many times,” Diaz said.
“Since Allen and Hazel are from here, it’s easy to get props, materials, and locations, there’s no high fees for rentals and all that, unlike in other places I’ve been. There were times we were taken advantage of. Some people we dealt with, when it comes to money, they always see an opportunity to get more. For example, in a town in Cavite, the name of which I won’t mention. It’s not the place, but some people we dealt with. It happened when were about to shoot Ang Kawalan in 2022, a co-production with Tanghalang Pilipino Foundation,” he added.
‘There were times we were taken advantage of. Some people we dealt with, when it comes to money, they always see an opportunity to get more’
“Ready na kami to shoot. Maliit lang yung forest doon pero kayang gawin. Medyo tricky. Problematic ang dealing sa pera. Pag production nagiging opportunistic, pag money ang involved. Example lang, normal sa mga production: ‘Magkano po yung kawayan? Sabi nila, ganito ang presyo. Pag shoot na, pag prepare na, nagiging times three na mga presyo. Maliit lang naman yung budget namin. ‘Yun lang, naging issue. Sabi ko sa (Sine Olivia) crew, ah mahirap to. Mauubusan tayo ng pera, in terms of production, sa pagbabayad pa lang ng mga gamit. Mga kawayan. Magtatayo kami ng mga kubo at simbahan (Before we shoot, the deal was made, but while the shooting was about to start, the prices went up three times. We have limited budget. We’re just a small production company. We needed bamboo because we’re going to build nipa huts and a small chapel),” Diaz said.
“Though it’s not the first time we shot here. Way back in 2014, we needed a river scene for Mula Sa Kung Ano Ang Noon and we did it here but at the time, I hadn’t explored the whole town. So, for Ang Kawalan, sabi ko kay Allen, silipin nga natin yung lugar nyo. Pagdating dito, sabi ko, naku, Allen, ang ganda ganda pala ng lugar nyo. Andito pala lahat, ‘tol. Hindi mo kelangan ng malaking pera na rental rental kung saan saan. Saka taga rito si Allen. Si Hazel, taga rito rin. More so, if you want the sea, there’s Mauban. If you like the feel of the city, there’s Lucena. Then noong ready na kami, tinawagan namin ang Tanghalang Pilipino to follow us here. Doon nagsimula,” he added.
The son of social worker teachers who preferred to live with and teach indigenous people in Mindanao, Diaz spent his childhood and teenage years in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, where there are also rivers, hills, and dense foliage. We asked him if Sampaloc somehow reminds of his growing-up years.
“Mga small lakes, rivers, ilog, bundok, palayan, we have those. Kaibahan lang dito sa Sampaloc, zero crime rate, sa amin patayan ng patayan (so many killings). The co-existence between Muslims and Christians, maganda noong early ’60s, pero nung ’70s, nanghingi na sila ng pagbabago, nagkaroon ng rebolusyon (the people wanted change and the only way was through revolution). Mas gusto ko talaga ang probinsya eh, beyond the Datu Paglas feel,” he said.
Sampaloc sits on the border of Laguna province. Based on an Inquirer report in 2014, National Artist for Film Fernando Poe Jr. shot the 1971 biopic Asedillo in Sampaloc. Poe portrayed the former schoolteacher turned revolutionary leader Teodoro Asedillo, who was killed by members of the Philippine Constabulary in his hiding place in what was then called Maladiangaw Falls in Sitio Maladiangaw, Brgy. Caldong, Sampaloc on Dec. 31, 1935. It was later named Asedillo Falls in his honor.
Just coincidentally, in other forested parts of Brgy. Caldong, Diaz shot pivotal scenes in Magellan and Phantosmia. Another coincidence: In his younger years, Diaz was member of a team of scriptwriters for Poe.
As of this writing, Diaz is in New York to attend several advanced screenings with talk-back sessions of Magellan. In the first two weeks of January, Magellan has been shown in regular theaters in France and the United States, garnering positive audience response. The first week in France had more than 20,000 viewers after it opened on Dec. 31, 2025 in 67 theaters. More theaters opened on the second week, reaching 90 movie houses, as announced by the Film Academy of the Philippines, and the audience count has been increasing. Naturally, there are also plans to screen it in Portugal and Spain, where some of the scenes were shot.
In the US, since Jan. 2, 2026, Diaz has been attending advanced screenings in cinematheques, with talk-back sessions. On Jan. 9, 2026, Magellan officially opened in more than 20 movie houses in the US, covering New York, Seattle, Minnesota, New Mexico, Atlanta, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Iowa, Pittsburgh, Portland, and several key cities in California.
Front page feature image on ‘Magellan’ in Montreal newspaper ‘Ledevoir’
In more recent email message from Diaz, he forwarded the front page image of a newspaper in Montreal, where Magellan is the headline. There have been talks Magellan is going to be shown in Montreal and other key cities in Canada. Janus Films, the official distributor in North America, has reported the film will be shown in Mexico.
There were also special screenings of Batang West Side (2001), or what is considered Diaz’s first masterpiece in his slow cinema years. The five-hour-15-minute film had a special run on Jan. 10, 2026 at Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, Illinois, followed by the Jan. 14 screening at the Asia Society, also in New York, to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary. It is described by Kani Releasing as the film that “establishes the epic scope and Dostoyevskian themes that would define Diaz’s oeuvre.” Kani is a boutique film distributor who also handles Mike de Leon’s Kisapmata and Batch ‘81; Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s Moral and Karnal; and Lino Brocka’s Bona.
Batang West Side was the dream project that Diaz started shooting when he was working for a Filipino newspaper in New York. He was doing multiple jobs as gasoline station attendant, waiter, messenger, proofreader of other Filipino publications, anything for him to afford to buy his own film negatives.
Over the years, he’s been coming in and out of New York because his children, all grown-up and with careers of their own, live in the Big Apple. Now it can be said: 25 years after finishing Batang West Side, when he was an unknown Filipino director, he has returned to New York as among the highly revered Southeast Asian filmmakers, based on the wide reception Magellan got. We can say he’s the only Filipino auteur being given such accolades in the US, whose talk-back sessions are well attended not only by Filipinos, but by a diverse audience of cinephiles.
Now it can be said: 25 years after finishing ‘Batang West Side’, when he was an unknown Filipino director, he has returned to New York as among the highly revered Southeast Asian filmmakers
In his own country, scarcity of funds still happens, and there are instances when projects grind to a halt because producers disappear or a popular lead actor would pull out of the project the night before the first shooting day.
Diaz is still not immune to such treatment, but he chooses to forgive and move on. Walang masamang tinapay, as we say in Filipino. The right people gravitate to him, ready to help him achieve his dream projects.
Diaz shared with The Diarist how some of the most bankable stars who acted for him would return their talent fees, or outright, wouldn’t accept them. “Ang kabutihan ni John (Lloyd Cruz), hindi nya tinatanggap ang bayad namind sa kanya (he won’t accept what we pay him), which is really not that much, way below his pay grade. If we deposit his talent fee, the following days, he’d return it all. Si Piolo (Pascual) rin, like ‘yung Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis, binalik nya yung pera (he returned the money). Yung kay Angel (Aquino), hindi talaga sya nagpapabayad sa akin. Kung tatanggapin naman nya, kinabukasan ibabalik nya (she doesn’t accept the talent fee I give her, or if she accepts it, the next day, she’ll give it back).”
In a recent post by Criterion Collection, a US firm dedicated to distributing and preserving classic and contemporary films, Diaz is featured in its Closet Picks, a promotional strategy wherein a filmmaker or actor can get and bring home DVD/Blue-Ray copies of favorite titles in its library. It’s rare these days, when streaming channels have taken over the preference of the moviegoing public. Any cinephiles would know that having a physical copy of a film, preferably original, is the same as owning it.
“I’m Lav Diaz, a Filipino filmmaker. I’m robbing cinema now. I am a thief of cinema,” he tells the audience. Like a child let loose in a candy store, Diaz is shown grabbing Blu-ray copies of his favorite films.
The titles with Diaz’s short comments: David Lynch’s Lost Highway (“A very influential filmmaker, I love him”); Satyajit Ray’s The Apu Trilogy (“It’s a whole universe, about poverty, about struggles, about oppression, all those things”); Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (“One of the best socialist films”); Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï, which stars the late, great Alain Delon (“What a great film, the bird scene in the film is something, the silences, the spaces in the film, they’re great”); Federico Fellinis’ boxset The Essential Fellini (“Once in your life you should watch a film by Fellini”).
Diaz’s loot bag also includes the 30-disc boxset Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema (“This is all about the human condition, it’s like being inside a psychiatric ward”); Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba (“Beautiful film about the Cuban revolution”); Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies (“He’s a good friend, I love his works”); Mike Leigh’s Naked (“Wow, this is something, the drama, the acting, and how he understands the human condition”); Bergman’s Persona (“I have the Bergman collection, but this is for all who want to understand the human psyche, the issue of turmoil in an individual”); Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu (“One of the greatest Japanese filmmakers. He dissects the human condition in a very, very clinical way. You watch him and you’ll understand humanity); and finally, Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa (“He’s a very dear friend. The same birthday, the same year, everything. Besides that, he’s a really, really true great filmmaker”).
Fans of Diaz would waste no time in watching these titles. Unfortunately, the Criterion Channel isn’t available in the Philippines. Some of the films can be found on MUBI.com, You Tube, and other accessible streaming sites.
“Thank you, I have a lot already. They are now falling out of the loot bag. Thank you, cinema,” he ends the video.
And as he does with books, “dampot dampot lang.” Nothing illegal there. They’re all just metaphors.
‘Magellan’ is being shown in 140 theaters in France (https://www.nourfilms.com/) and more than 30 movie houses in the US until March. For updated schedules, log on to https://magellan.film/buy-tickets.
In Canada, it is scheduled to be shown in Montreal’s Cinema Moderne on Jan. 29, Feb. 5, and Feb. 25. Log on to https://www.cinemamoderne.com/en/films/details/magellan/;
It is also part of this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam from the end of January to early February. Log on to https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2026/films/magellan#vertoningen)
READ MORE:
500th anniversary of Magellan: Half a millennium of staying the same
‘Ako pala’y isang hangal’—How John Lloyd Cruz’s ‘indefinite leave’ led to ‘emancipation’
