Marilou Diaz-Abaya

Her father is from Paoay, Ilocos Norte, and is related to Valentín Díaz, who was one of the founding signatories in 1892 of the nationalist association La Liga Filipina with José Rizal, whom her famous film was about.

Diaz and her siblings grew up in a house filled with art that was instituted by their parents who were art collectors.

On the walls of their house hung several painting by national artist Fernando Amorsolo.

Diaz and her siblings were forced by their parents to take up piano classes and ballet classes.

According to her, when she became a filmmaker, she realized the importance of art in her youth.

Growing up, Diaz was not a film buff, and rather had more interest in literature and history.

An event that lead her to film was her applying for Communication Arts in the Assumption Convent.

She intended to enroll for Asian Civilizations studies, but was not able to because the History Department was closed.

Because of this she enrolled for Communication Arts and intended to stay for only one semester, but her love for theater acting free.

During her time in college, she produced plays at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Also in college, she was able to direct her first film.

Marilou Correa Diaz-Abaya (March 30, 1955 – October 8, 2012 ) was a Filipina multi-award winning film director.

She was conferred the Order of National Artists of the Philippines for Film and Broadcast Arts in 2022, she was the founder and president of the Marilou Diaz-Abaya Film Institute and Arts Center, a film school based in Antipolo, Philippines.

Diaz was born in Quezon City in 1955.

She was one of seven children of lawyers Conrado Diaz and Felicitas Correa Diaz.

She grew up quite privileged.

She studied in several private schools (at St. Theresa's College from Kindergarten to High School), eventually graduating from Assumption College with a degree in Bachelor of Arts, major in Communication Arts in 1976.

She went to Los Angeles for further studies and graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a degree in Master of Arts in Film and Television in 1978.

She then went to London and completed the Film Course at London International Film School also in 1978.

She entered the Philippine cinema industry in 1980 as a feminist director, yet she recalled growing up in a gender-free atmosphere.

Diaz-Abaya's films are known for the struggles of the marginalized, and yet she never thought of a career in filmmaking while growing up in private Catholic schools for the elite.

Diaz-Abaya and her husband, after living in London, went back to the Philippines and got together with some theater friends to start an independent film company, Cine Filipinas, which was funded by their parents.

Though Diaz-Abaya and her film company were able to produce films together, their films flopped at the box office and lost money.

After this event, she met Jesse Ejercito, an independent film producer who recognized and enjoyed the cinematography and art direction of Diaz-Abaya's film Tanikala.

Diaz directed and released her first feature film, Tanikala (Chains) in 1980.

Since then, she has been one of the most active and visible directors in Philippine cinema.

Jesse Ejercito gave Diaz-Abaya the opportunity to make a film and Diaz-Abaya proposed to have Ricky Lee, whom she has only heard of and not met, as a writer for her film.

Ricky Lee would then be known as one of Diaz-Abaya's collaborators in film and credited as the screenplay writer for several of Diaz-Abaya's films.

Lee and Diaz-Abaya's first collaboration was making Brutal, which premiered at the Metro Manila Film Festival in 1980.

Brutal was a success and Ishmael Bernal, a highly regarded Filipino filmmaker, saw the film and wanted to meet Diaz-Abaya.

Bernal became Diaz-Abaya's mentor.

After her success with Brutal, she then directed Macho Gigolo.

Her early films Brutal, Karnal (Of the Flesh), and Alyas Baby Tsina, sharply condemn the oppressive social system during the administration of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.

When the Marcos was deposed in 1986, Diaz left filmmaking.

Díaz produced television programs for several years.

Her work attempts to reflect the social and political problems to attain social reform.

She admittedly uses her work as a tool to uphold, promote, and protect the state of democracy in the Philippines.

Marilou Diaz-Abaya was the treasurer of the directors’ union under Lino Brocka for several years.

She was the director of the 1998 film José Rizal, a biographical film on the Philippines' national hero of the same name.

She was part of the Second Golden Age of Philippine Cinema.