Vol. 62 - Essential Philippine Cinema: Mike De Leon's BATCH '81
In partnership with Asians at Amazon and Filipinos at Amazon, Cinema Sala invites you to the 4K restoration premiere of BATCH ’81 to honor the passing of legendary Filipino film director Mike De Leon. Special thanks to the Asian Film Archive (Singapore) and L'Immagine Ritrovata for the 4K restoration, and to Kani Releasing for championing the availability of Asian cinema in North America.
5:30pm - Doors Open. Networking, Drinks, & Light Bites.
7:00pm - Screening
8:45pm - Q&A
9:30pm - Join us at Jameson's Bar for our Pasko Afterparty
Mike De Leon sadly passed this year on August 28 at the age of 78. BATCH ’81 premiered at the 1982 Cannes Directors' Fortnight alongside his other film, KISAPMATA. BATCH '81 is a searing commentary about Martial Law under the Marcos regime, a gut punch camouflaged inside a college ensemble drama about the deathly hazing traditions in Manila fraternities in the 1980s. It is one of the best films in the history of Philippine Cinema, and especially poignant in today’s political climate. A must watch in a theatrical experience!
After the screening, there will be a short pre-taped Zoom Q&A with the award-winning scriptwriter Clodualdo del Mundo with his daughter, writer-director Ida del Mundo, who grew up on the sets of his films. After this, we will have a roundtable conversation about anti-authoritarian cinema between Cinema Sala founder and filmmaker Marie Jamora, producer and media/communications executive Jessica del Mundo (Clodualdo del Mundo's niece), and UCLA Dean of Theater, Film and Television and Distinguished Professor, Celine Parreñas Shimizu.
Teaser of BATCH ’81 intercut with behind the scenes stills:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOxOlOzyWSk
‼️ Doors open at 5:30pm, first 90 people receive free drink wristbands at the bar.
🍽️ FOOD WILL BE SERVED! Since we can't host our traditional potluck at our venue, food and beverages are courtesy of Cinema Sala and Amazon. We'd love your support of donations to continue our mission of free admission and programming.
🅿️ Parking
Theater provides 2-hour parking validation to any of the following Culver City lots. In addition, the city provides one hour free.
Ince Parking Structure (at Trader Joe's)- 9099 Washington Blvd.
Cardiff Parking Garage- 3486 Cardiff Ave.
Watseka Parking Garage- 3844 Watseka Ave.
Please note that the Culver Theater does not validate for the Culver Steps parking garage.
🚨 Cinema Sala screenings are OVERBOOKED to ensure seating capacity in the theater, therefore seating is not guaranteed based on RSVPs. The RSVP list will be checked in on a first-come, first-served basis with donations guaranteed - until the theater is full. Once the theater has reached capacity, we will no longer be able to admit guests, regardless of RSVP status.
The film screening is presented by Cinema Sala Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, in partnership with Asians & Filipinos at Amazon, with permission from the film distributed by Kani Releasing and is for non-commercial purposes only.
A DEEPER DIVE FROM KANI RELEASING
ON BATCH ‘81
Mike De Leon made his Cannes debut with not one, but two provocative, incisive and angry blows against authoritarianism, fascism and the Marcos dictatorship in 1982 with Kisapmata and Batch ‘81. Complementing Kisapmata’s horrific vision of a ruling, paternalistic family despot, Mike De Leon’s Batch '81 expands its critique to include tomorrow’s tyrants. Freshman Sid Lucero (Mark Gil, in his breakout performance), desperately wants to join the Alpha Kappa Omega fraternity. Over the course of a gruelling initiation process, he goes through every humiliation to please his “masters” — even as their treatment veers into increasingly fascistic, cult-like territory. Overt echoes of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and John Carpenter abound in De Leon’s claustrophobic college drama: a film that subverts expectations by casting college life in a sinister blood-red light. An urgent reaction to Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law rule at the time, Batch ’81 burns bright today as De Leon’s angriest and most direct film — asking hard questions about masculinity, indoctrination, free will and the banality of evil, most insidious when disguised as brotherhood, responsibility or duty. Raising uncomfortable truths about class aspirations and privilege in the Philippines — and the world at large — Batch ’81 is as timely and necessary as it has ever been, presented in its 4K restoration commissioned by the Asian Film Archive and L'Immagine Ritrovata.
NOTES ON THE RESTORATION
The Restoration of BATCH ‘81 was made possible through the use of the 35mm original camera negative, a positive print, and the original sound negative from the Asian Film Archive Collection preserved at the vaults of the National Archives of Singapore.
The negative affected by vinegar syndrome, developed haloes and mould, and contained dominant green hued defects on the emulsion. Parts of the negative were unusable and had to be integrated with shots from the positive print.
The film elements were scanned and digitally restored in 4K resolution by L’Immagine Ritrovata. The film’s director Mike De Leon and the film’s cinematographer, Rody Lacap, supervised the color grading.
ABOUT MIKE DE LEON (DIRECTOR)
Born in 1947, Mike De Leon was a renowned director, producer, cinematographer, and archivist of the Philippines. Filipino cinema started booming in the post-war era with ambitious works such as Anak Dalita (1956) and the development of its major studios, including LVN, founded and steered by De Leon’s grandmother Narcisa “Sisang” De Leon and later his father, Manuel De Leon. Growing up observing the comings-and-goings of the first Golden Age of Philippine cinema (late 1940s - early 1960s) De Leon would go on to usher in the Second Golden Age (1970s - early 1980s) alongside peers such as Lino Brocka (Bona, Manila in the Claws of Light), Ishmael Bernal (Himala) and Marilou Diaz-Abaya (Moral). In 1975, De Leon produced and shot Brocka’s groundbreaking Manila in the Claws of Light before his own debut the following year with supernatural horror film Itim, which launched both his career and that of actor Charo Santos.
De Leon’s filmography of ten feature films, alongside a handful of shorts, is exceptionally diverse in genre, but consistent in execution. A militantly political filmmaker, his work from the 1970s and 80s focused on the violence of the Marcos dictatorship on the body and the psyche of the Filipino people. Later in life, De Leon turned his focus on archiving and digitizing the LVN archives, allowing for the continued appreciation of early Filipino cinema. His final film, Citizen Jake was released in 2018 and premiered at the Busan International Film Festival. Mike De Leon passed away in 2025, aged 78.