Macho Dancer

Macho Dancer
Movie Poster
Directed byLino Brocka
Written by
Produced byBoy C. De Guia
Starring
CinematographyJoe Totanes[1]
Edited byRuben Natividad
Music byMon del Rosario
Production
companies
  • Award Films
  • Special People Productions
Distributed byViva Films
Release date
  • September 9, 1988 (1988-09-09) (TIFF)
Running time
136 minutes
CountryPhilippines
LanguageFilipino

Macho Dancer is a 1988 Philippine film, directed by Lino Brocka.[2] It explores the realities of a young, poor, rural gay man, who after being dumped by his American boyfriend, is forced to support himself and his family in Manila's seamy red-light district.[3] The film's frank depiction of homosexuality, prostitution, drag queens and crooked cops, the porn industry, sexual slavery, and drugs and violence caused Filipino government censors to order extensive edits of the film.[3] Brocka smuggled an uncensored cut out of the Philippines to be shown to a limited number of international film festivals.[3][4] The film received a standing ovation at the 1988 Toronto International Film Festival.[1] Macho Dancer was a box office failure in the Philippines due to its heavy censorship, but achieved international festival and critical success.[1]

The smuggled, uncensored 35 mm print of the film is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.[3][5]

Macho Dancer is one of the most influential gay films from the Philippines.[6] The film is atypical of its genre in that its main protagonist kills a corrupt police officer without being charged for the crime.[7]

Alan Paule and other actors playing 'macho dancers' were trained by a real macho dancer for three months.[8]

In 2021 Joel Lamangan directed the sequel "Anak ng Macho Dancer", which focuses on Inno, the son of Pol, portrayed by Sean De Guzman

  1. ^ a b c Peter Malone (editor)Through a Catholic Lens: Religious Perspectives of Nineteen Film Directors from around the World, p. 137, at Google Books
  2. ^ "MACHO DANCER (1988)". bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on March 18, 2016. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d "Macho Dancer. 1988. Directed by Lino Brocka". www.moma.org. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  4. ^ Thomas, Kevin (December 8, 1989). "MOVIE REVIEW : Gays in Manila Struggle for Survival in 'Macho Dancer'". L.A. Times. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  5. ^ Raymond Murray (1994). Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video. TLA Publications. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-880707-01-2.
  6. ^ Claude Summers (editor) The Queer Encyclopedia of Film and Television, p. 135, at Google Books
  7. ^ James Monaco The Encyclopedia of Film, p. 81, at Google Books
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference cine was invoked but never defined (see the help page).