Lualhati Bautista
fictionist and scriptwriter Lualhati Bautista enrolled as a student at the Lyceum of the Philippines in 1964 where she completed only a year of her journalism course. Her first screenplay was the movie Sakada (Seasonal Sugarcane Workers), 1976, co-written with Oscar Miranda, which exposed the plight of Filipino peasants. In 1984, she wrote the screenplay for Bulaklak ng City Jail (Flower of the City Jail), based on a novel she wrote on women in prison. Her screenplay almost swept the awards for Best Story and Best Screenplay from the Film Academy of the Philippines, Metro Manila Film Festival, and the Philippine Movie Press Club. In the 1985 Star Awards she was cited for Sex Object, which was based on her short story, "Iiyak Ka Pa Ba?" (Will You Still Cry?), delving into the attitudes of a patriarchal society towards a rape victim. First adapted into a teleplay directed by Lino Brocka, Sex Object was initially banned because it exposed the miscarriage of justice in the courts. In 1993, she wrote the screenplay for Maricris Sioson Story based on the life of a Filipina entertainer murdered in Japan.
She was at one time vice-president of the Screenwriters Guild of the Philippines; is a member of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, Children's Literature Association of the Philippines, and Women Involved in Creating Cultural Alternatives (WICCA) and is chair of Kapisanan ng mga Manunulat ng Nobelang Popular. She has won in the country's major literary contests including the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature with several of her short stories and novels. She is also credited as the only Filipino writer anthologized in a book published in Japan, along with internationally renowned women writers such as Isabel Allende, Alice Walker, Isak Dinesen and Margaret Atwood.
(11th International Women's Film Festival, March 2000)
Other Film Credits
Nena
Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa
Gusto Ko Nang Lumigaya
