Can anti-Martial Law films brainwash kids? Just silly, says 'Liway' director

"Liway" director Kip Oebanda on Friday scoffed at the accusations that the youth are being "brainwashed" through film screenings.

"How fragile are the brains of these children that they can be brainwashed by a film? Parang hypnosis no — anti-Marcos ka na!" he said during a press conference at the University of the Philippines Film Institute.

Oebanda was addressing supposed comments from concerned parents cited by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, saying children are being subjected to brainwashing activities through film screenings.

"You can criticize the film, that's fine, once you've watched our films you've earned the right now to like our film. Pero this idea that we're somehow hypnotizing people in two hours is just silly," he said.

"Ang point lang naman namin ay ipakita ang totoo. Kung may magdisagree o agree sa pelikula namin, OK lang yun. Ganun naman ang purpose ng pelikula. It doesn't teach you what to think, it teaches you what to think about and that's what we want to provide in the discourse of our film," he added.

Oebanda's film "Liway" tells the true story of  a young mother, played by Glaiza de Castro, who uses story-telling to protect her child from the reality of growing up in prison and the difficult life she endured during Martial Law.

The director said that if the children's values can be easily shaken, then it must mean the parents were not very convincing in the values they taught them.

"It's your job as a parent primarily to teach your kids these values. So if a film shakes these values, maybe your values are not particularly strong, maybe you're not convincing as a parent," he said.

Based on the reception to "Liway," Oebanda said that the youth have not moved on from the abuses under the Marcos regime.

He said that in the last Cinemalaya, "Liway" and "ML", another Martial Law film broke the box office record.

"I think young people are particularly moved. It's just a question of providing them information and the truth and they would actually watch these realities," he said. —JST, GMA News