When a young filmmaker sets out to make a film about a forgotten massacre from Philippine history, the project gradually expands into something far more elusive. Director Sari Lluch Dalena makes a bold metacinematic move here, by fictionalising her own experience making Memories of a Forgotten War (2001), during whose production cast members reportedly experienced spirit possession while filming at historical massacre sites.

These experiences continue to reverberate through Cinemartyrs, where the ghosts of history become both metaphor and material presence. At the same time, Dalena addresses the overlooked contributions of pioneering women filmmakers in the Philippine studio system of the 1940s and 1950s, weaving together histories of cinema that have remained largely invisible.

Cinemartyrs took nearly two decades to come to fruition, a long gestation that mirrors its central concern with the persistence of historical memory. Both politically urgent and formally adventurous, the film reminds us that remembering is never simply an act of looking backwards, but an ongoing negotiation with the images that have survived.

TW