A Thousand Cuts

Also features: the weaponization of social media, poor karaoke renditions from a senator to-be, bravery in the face of daily terror, and voices of strong women in Maria Ressa, Pia Rañada, and Samira Gutoc as they continue trying to make the truth be heard with their heads held high.

Unlike the other documentaries, this one actually shows the bad sides and the reality of what is happening here in the Philippines.

A Thousand Cuts follows the story of Maria Ressa, the founder of the Filipino news site Rappler, and her conflict with the government under Rodrigo Duterte. We see the struggle for democracy and freedom of the press as very familiar tactics are used on the populace to turn them towards populism (e.g. Inflammatory rhetoric, bots and trolls, social media). We track Ressa's two arrests for "cyber libel" and the campaign for seats in the Philippine senate. Ressa herself is a hopeful figure, but the overall picture looks grim.

This documentary is an eye-opener to how the Philippine government suppresses press freedom.

You can ignore the negative reviews. Just like Italy had Mussolini, The Philippines has a President that is using the war on drugs and his Social Media personality to appeal to the people while he takes down the Democratic Constitution of his own government and looks to the silence the press and his opponents while rigging his own legislature with people loyal to him.

Loved that it also presented the opinions of those loyal to him and the reasons why. Loved how it explained protecting Democracy is even more important.

Everyone needs to see this.