''Da Real Makoy'' (lit. ''The Real Macoy'') is a 1977 Philippine

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film follows the tenth president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr., sets a

field trip A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of associated peers, such as coworkers or school students, to a place away from their normal environment for the purpose of education or leisure, either within their country or abroad. When ar ...

Ilocos Norte Ilocos Norte (), officially the Province of Ilocos Norte (; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region. It is located in the northwest corner of Luzon island, bordering Cagayan and Apayao to t ...

, Marcos's hometown, with his eldest daughter

Imee Marcos Maria Imelda Josefa Remedios "Imee" Romualdez Marcos-Manotoc (; born November 12, 1955) is a Filipino politician and film producer serving as a Senate of the Philippines, senator since 2019. She previously served as governor of Ilocos Norte ...

. Shot entirely in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte with some animation sequences, the film was produced by National Media Production Center (NMPC) under her leadership Imee, who serves as a producer, and was written and directed by

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

Nonoy Marcelo in his directorial debut. ''Da Real Makoy'' was originally released on September 21, 1977, on local theaters to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Martial Law. Despite its obscurity after the

People Power Revolution The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, were a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...

in 1986, it was re-released on September 11, 2023, on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

to commemorate the 106th birthday of Ferdinand Marcos by the Kabataan Kontra Droga at Terorismo Ilocandia Incorporated (KKDAT) for educational purposes.

Plot

The film starts on a coastline of Ilocos Norte with

Paoay Church Saint Augustine Parish Church, commonly known as Paoay Church, is a Roman Catholic church in the municipality of Paoay, Ilocos Norte in the Philippines. It is under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Diocese of Laoag. Completed in 1710, t ...

silhouetted in Javanese efflorescence, onto the region's fishermen and farmers meditative in their immemorial sea and soil. It closes up on a light plane descending into

Laoag International Airport Laoag International Airport is an airport serving the general area of Laoag, the capital city of the province of Ilocos Norte in the Philippines. It is the only airport in Ilocos Norte and is the northernmost international airport in the Ph ...

, Marcos gets off with his eldest daughter Imee to the welcome of an Ilocano march and a gaggle of graders and high school kids, everyone boarding a bus fare stickered on its doors in signature anachronism. During the board, Marcos takes on the narration himself, rambling on about how the road they were traversing, unpaved in his youth, now ran through more thickly populated towns; how he was first baptized as an Aglipayan; how his grandfather was a master brewer of basi; how his father lost their lands when he entered politics at a time, details of a much-mythified tale were difficult to verify.

Production

Produced during a time when Marcelo was invited to join NMPC, owned by New Society Movement, in

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

season of 1976 to make his first film as a documentary, describes a film promotion as a "smiling

martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...

". The film about Marcoses going on a trip to his hometown, with Marcelo and Edgardo "Egay" Navarro are the only crew members to participated in the film; Navarro, he was in the 20s, wanted to make shots for the Ilocano residents as well as Marcos itself in a style of

cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ) is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about '' Kino-Pravda''. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subje ...

.{{Cite web , last=Severino , first=Howie , date=2014-01-29 , title='Let the picture come to you' (2 decades of working with Egay Navarro) , url=https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/content/346131/let-the-picture-come-to-you-2-decades-of-working-with-egay-navarro/story/ , access-date=2025-03-02 , website=

GMA News Online GMA Network Inc., commonly known as GMA, is a Philippine media company based in Diliman, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. GMA is primarily involved in radio and television broadcasting, with subsidiaries dealing in various media-related ...

, language=en Some animation sequences were provided by Marcelo, being used with quirky, sly satire of the kind of blatant

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

being created at the time by the regime.

References

1977 films 1977 documentary films Philippine documentary films Philippine propaganda films Films about Filipino families Films set in Ilocos Norte Propaganda films Propaganda in the Philippines