‘And So It Begins’ Review: An Uninvolving Portrait of Filipino Politics

Siddhant Adlakha A companion piece to her documentary “A Thousand Cuts,” Ramona S. Diaz’s “And So It Begins” follows the 2022 Philippine election, and Vice President Leni Robredo’s run for office. The film lays out the broad strokes of the country’s contemporary politics in the wake of strongman President Rodrigo Duterte, while capturing the groundswell of support for Robredo.

However, it features neither the narrative and aesthetic intensity needed for an up-to-the-minute chronicle, nor the political depth required of such vital subject matter, which Diaz’s previous work has in spades. After a contentious vice presidency — she was elected on a separate ticket from Duterte, as is common in the Philippines — Robredo’s campaign kicks off with grassroots activism awash in pink apparel, often on a scale so large that overhead shots of her rallies barely fit within the frame. With political experience and a moving personal narrative at her back, she seems like a strong candidate to replace Duterte (who’s constitutionally allowed only a single term), while also replacing his violent populism with a more accepting umbrella.

Her events are filled with song and dance, occasionally from queer and drag performers, and the generally joyful tone of her camp and supporters feels radical in an era of nationalistic strongmen. However, this aforementioned political dynamic can be divined from the movie’s opening minutes, and what follows seldom dives any deeper. Apart from its handful of scenes about the silencing of Filipino journalists (like Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, the subject of “A Thousand Cuts”), “And So It Begins” is rarely concerned with the make-or-break political minutiae upon which movements are built.

It only gets its hands dirty when painting a portrait of online harassment and disinformation. Although this detour is informative and enlightening about the cost of speaking truth to power as a journalist, it doesn’t exist alongside a meaningful exploration of why a candidate like Robredo might be targeted in the first place. That she’s a woman in the public eye who opposes Duterte’s general tenor certainly paints a target on her back, but what she