The fall of President Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorship presented an opportunity for the Philippines to regain democracy. But the aftermath of the celebrated People Power revolution also showed the ugly realities that can attend social change, including the succession of coup attempts that followed the election of Corazon Aquino, Asia’s first female president. The Philippines: A Legacy of Violence investigates the roots of the social violence that continues to shape the political life of a nation marked by a long history of colonialism.

Twelve years after Deocampo’s portrait of a performer and female impersonator in Oliver, he revisited the relationship between poverty and prostitution, focusing on sex workers who found a market for their services abroad. The Sex Warriors and the Samurai is a candid story about Joan, a transgender Filipina who works in Tokyo’s Shinjuku entertainment district to support her eighteen-person family. Joan and other transgender people tell their harrowing tales of struggling to survive yakuza threats, drug use, and continued marginalisation within Japanese society. Joan’s story rises above personal struggle as it reflects the geopolitical relations governing Japan and the Philippines, two countries historically sparked by Japan’s invasion and currently linked by a globalised economy.

The screening on 5 November will be followed by a post-screening talk in English with Nick Deocampo via a video call.