Nora Aunor vs Ferdinand Marcos: popular youth films of 1970s Philippine cinema

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Abstract

This chapter examines how Philippine actress Nora Aunor’s potentially subversive star image was tempered into a safer expression of permissible freedom that also promoted forms of desirable behaviour and values in the 1970s. Such an image functioned to inhibit social and political dissent, indicating how popular films responded to President Ferdinand Marcos’s regulation of Philippine cinema during the martial law era. The chapter discusses the role of the studio in ensuring compliance by instituting complementary policies that shaped popular star images and film production. Hierarchies of power and submission were reinforced through Aunor’s persona in films that appealed to the lower classes, encouraging noble suffering and acceptance of one’s fate.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSoutheast Asia on Screen
Subtitle of host publicationFrom Independence to Financial Crisis (1945-1998)
EditorsGaik Cheng Khoo, Thomas Barker, Mary J. Ainslie
Place of PublicationAmsterdam Netherlands
PublisherAmsterdam University Press
Chapter10
Pages215-232
Number of pages18
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9789048541904
ISBN (Print)9789462989344
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Publication series

NameAsian Visual Cultures
PublisherAmsterdam University Press

Keywords

  • Nora Aunor
  • Ferdinand Marcos
  • authoritarianism
  • youth
  • Philippine cinema
  • stardom

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