Macho Dancer

+ recorded intro by Professor José B. Capino, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

A young man travels to Manila to work as a dancer, stripper and rent boy in Lino Brocka’s acclaimed gay drama.

  • Director

    Lino Brocka

  • With

    Allan Paule, Daniel Fernando

  • Philippines 1988. 136min

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • Tagalog with English subtitles

Lino Brocka’s acclaimed gay drama centres on Paul, who leaves his impoverished rural village to work as a dancer, stripper and rent boy in Manila’s red-light district. Due to its hard content and uncompromising social critique, Macho Dancer was heavily cut in the Philippines. The film’s strikingly erotic imagery forces us to consider our desires, and complicity as viewers.