OFFICIAL "DUKOT" TRAILER
SYNOPSIS OF THE FILM "DUKOT"
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT "DUKOT"
ALLEN DIZON
Lead actor
For the number of years that Allen Dizon has been an actor, the recognition is long in coming. Even as he has done more than 50 movies since the mid 90’s – a number of them sexy roles, it was only in 2008 that he was able to garner Best Supporting Actor awards from two cinema institutions in the Philippines. And then came “Dukot.”For essaying the role of an abducted militant activist in the movie, Allen has already won a Best Actor award from Gawad Tanglaw, composed of educators whose advocacy is films for social development, plus three nominations (Star Awards, Golden Screen and Urian) all in a row.
Allen’s transformation from a hunk actor to a serious one, which is indeed his goal, was a struggle against typecasting. The opportunities for change came painfully slow. Until, in one stroke of a movie, he became a hit.
“It’s a baptism of fire for me, as well as a moment of enlightenment,” says Allen about his experience in “Dukot.” As an actor, businessman, and drag racer, he cared little about what’s happening in society. “Dukot” introduced him to social awareness. “In making the film, it seemed that I got into one awesome schooling about human rights.”
“I am humbled by the unbelievable reception of our audiences, most especially by the activists whose lives are devoted to fighting for human rights. Imagine them calling me ‘Idol,’ when I should be the one calling them that!”
Asked about the best film that ever happened to him, Allen’s answer is obvious.
DENNIS EVANGELISTA
Producer
The unassuming supervising and line producer of “Dukot” has a degree in film and audio visual communications from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. But Dennis Evangelista actually started out in the movie industry as a scriptwriter. In the 1980s, he wrote for television, churning out scripts for drama shows, and eventually, for the movies.As an alter ego of the moneybags, Dennis not only plays his cards well in managing productions. He also knows the stuff of which good scripts are made. After all, he has won a couple of Best Screenplay awards (Famas and Star Awards) early on in his career.
“Dukot” is likewise an enlightenment for Dennis. “It has definitely inspired me to be on the lookout for meaningful stories for production. Funds for movie-making is a huge problem in the Philippines. I now feel sad that the little that there is is spent on films that say nothing about what is happening around us. Really sayang.” ‘What a waste’ is what he means. And that is speaking volumes for “Dukot” by someone who never imagined he could be producing social realism in a world of entertainment.
BONIFACIO ILAGAN
Screenwriter
During the centennial of Philippine independence in 1998, the Cultural Center of the Philippines conferred the Centennial Honors for the Arts upon the "100 most outstanding Filipino artists and cultural advocates in the last 100 years for their contribution to the development of the nation.” Among them was Bonifacio P. Ilagan, who was cited for "firmly (committing) his craft to a nationalist line and fearlessly (reinventing) the theatrical stage into a potent venue for expressing the democratic aspirations of the Filipino people against a repressive martial rule.”Curiously, four years earlier, he, together with seven others, had been abducted and tortured by a military intelligence unit in the Cordillera region of the Philippines. (In 1974, Ilagan underwent the same terror.) Unable to criminalize artistic activism, which was what he was actually doing, the government charged him with rebellion and illegal possession of firearms and explosives. (A younger sister, Rizalina, also an artist, was not as lucky. She was abducted in 1977 and has not been found to date.)
Ilagan not only persisted in his kind of theater but also branched out to filmmaking, pursuing the same political themes with equal passion, and winning the recognition of various award-giving institutions.
Presently, he is the creative consultant of Kodao Productions and a board member of ST Exposure, two of the most active video outfits in the Philippine mass movement. Ilagan, the founding chair of the First Quarter Storm Movement, an organization of the activists in the 1960s and 1970s, is a member of the National Council of Bayan, the foremost federation of people's organizations in the Philippines.
MELISSA ROXAS
Artist and human rights activist
Melissa Roxas is a poet, writer, and human rights activist. She was a 2004 PEN USA Rosenthal Emerging Voices Fellow for poetry, a Kundiman Fellow for poetry for 2005 and 2006, and was selected to participate in Great Leap Collaboratory in 2006.For the past 15 years, she has done community work in Southern California and in the Philippines. She co-founded Habi Arts, a Los Angeles based cultural organization dedicated to promoting community empowerment and progressive social change through the arts. At the founding of BAYAN USA in 2005, she was elected and served as the BAYAN USA Southern California coordinator from 2005-2006. In August 2005, she led a US delegation to participate in the International Solidarity Mission in the Philippines to investigate human rights violations.
Melissa traveled to the Philippines in 2007 to continue her community and human rights work with disadvantaged and marginalized communities in the Philippines. While conducting community health work in La Paz, Tarlac, she was abducted on May 19, 2009 by agents of the Philippine military and was held in secret detention and tortured for six days. This experience has deepened her commitment to human rights work and to continue writing for truth and justice.
