Live Show (film)
| Live Show | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Jose Javier Reyes |
| Written by | Jose Javier Reyes |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Jesse Lucas |
| Cinematography | Eduardo Jacinto |
| Edited by | Vito N. Cajili |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Regal Films |
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Release date
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2000 |
| Country | Philippines |
| Language | Filipino English |
Live Show, originally titled Toro, is a Filipino film directed and written by Jose Javier Reyes.
The film depicts the lives of poverty-stricken young men and women forced to the trade of performing live fornication on stage of Manila's nightclubs in exchange for money.
Live Show was exhibited at the Berlin Film Festival in 2000 and was shown in 12 other festivals in North America, Europe and Australia, where it earned praise for its brutal realism.
In 2000, then Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chairman Armida Siguion-Reyna ordered a ban on Toro. After the first ban was imposed, a "second (expanded) review committee" was created and subsequently overruled the decision and voted to give the producer, Regal Films, the permit to exhibit.
The film, however, was not shown in public theaters in the Philippines until the second week of March 2001 after its original name, Toro, which means pay-per-view sex in local slang, was changed.
Live Show created a public outcry in the Philippines. The Catholic Church severely criticized the Philippine government for allowing the screening of the film, which shows upper frontal nudity. After running for about two weeks, then President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo suspended Live Show’s run in theaters and ordered the creation of an appeals committee, which includes representative of Macapagal-Arroyo and the film industry, to screen a review the said film.
The banning of Live Show triggered a debate over the freedom of expression and the role of the Roman Catholic church in the Philippines. On March 22, 2001, Nicanor Tiongson, Siguion-Reyna’s successor, resigned from his post, and accused the church and Macapagal-Arroyo of religious bigotry. He was replaced by Alejandro Roces.
Macapagal-Arroyo elicited criticisms for banning a film she had not even seen. The ban also provoked fierce protests from the film industry, which accused Macapagal-Arroyo of buckling under pressure from Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin, the top prelate in the largely Roman Catholic nation. On March 23, 2001, The film's director Jose Javier Reyes, along with Klaudia Koronel and other 2,000 entertainment industry workers marched down Mendiola Street to protest the ban.
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Wikipedia