Sometimes, fate favours those who firmly hold on to their dreams—such was the case of 36-year-old ‘Maria Clara at Ibarra’ director Zig Dulay
There was only so much Zig Dulay could do as a child who relied heavily on his neighbour’s ailing television set for entertainment. Born and raised by his farmer parents in the far-flung province of Isabela, Dulay was aware of the privileges that life robbed him of at an early age. “As a kid, I loved watching soap operas, [even when] we had no TV. We barely had access to movies. Besides having no dispensable cash to pay for our tickets, people in our province needed to visit the city to enjoy watching in a movie house,” Dulay recalls.
“All I had was my dream. I wanted to be involved in filmmaking, I just didn't know how."
In 1997, Dulay was among the people who flocked the cinema for James Cameron’s Titanic. And while the classic is widely remembered as a romance flick, the filmmaker asserts that its plot is more than what it seems to appear. “It was my first movie ever. Although it was deliberately framed as a love story, [I noticed how] hierarchy, power, and class disparity were apparent in the narrative. There were no equal opportunities between the rich and the poor.”
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Because of the movie, Dulay was even more drawn to politically-charged storylines. “I watched movies like Bata-bata Paano Ka Ginawa, Dekada ‘70, Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag, Orapronobis, Bona, and a lot of Lino Brocka films,” he shares. “I became interested in movies that are not only there to entertain. Sa palagay ko, doon sumibol ‘yung kaluluwa ng mga likha ko ngayon [In hindsight, I think that’s when the essence of the works I have now truly sprouted].”