• Imelda

    by  • March 13, 2004 • Cinequest 14, Documentary

    Directed by Ramona S. Diaz


    Imelda Marcos, widow of the Phillipine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is an odd contradiction. Wife of a notorious dictator, capable of the most amazing excesses (famously, she once owned enough shoes to change pairs every day for eight years and never wear the same shoe twice), and yet completely convinced that their rule was just and that the people of the Phillipines love her. Or at least, that’s how she seems.
    It’s difficult to tell exactly how much of the version of her life she tells is what she truly believes and how much is what she wishes were true. “Imelda” lets her tell her story herself, however, and although other people (opposition candidates, journalists jailed and tortured under her husband’s reign, her children, etc.) are interviewed, the film is not biased in either direction. She is given enough rope to hang herself and it is up to the audience to make up their mind about her.
    This is a fascinating portrait of a powerful woman, and well worth seeing.