‘Macho Dancer,’ a Once-Censored Queer Classic from the Philippines, Now Uncut in 4K — Watch the Trailer

Exclusive: One of the most influential queer films from the Philippines returns to theaters starting July 10.

The rising swell of LGBTQ films from the Philippines in the last few decades — in one of the Southeast Asian countries most friendly to queer storytelling — owes much to Lino Brocka’s 1988 “Macho Dancer.”

A vividly told and hyper-stylized melodrama, the film centers on a young gay man, barely 18, who leaves the country to try his hand at sex work in Manila to support his family. He falls into a demimonde of desire and police corruption in this surprisingly explicit (but never exploitative) rediscovery, which has played the Museum of Modern Art’s To Save and Project and the Los Angeles Festival of Movies, and will soon head to Frameline in San Francisco. IndieWire debuts the exclusive trailer for the 4K restoration, arriving courtesy of Kani Releasing, below and in time for Pride Month.

More on the film courtesy of Kani Releasing’s synopsis: “Upon losing a reliable American client, 18-year-old gigolo Pol (Allan Paule) leaves the provinces to try his luck in the soapy gay clubs of Metro Manila. Pol learns the ropes alongside fellow stripper Noel (Daniel Fernando) and savvy prostitute Bambi (Jaclyn Jose), discovering an underbelly of protection rackets, human trafficking and rampant political corruption. One of Lino Brocka’s lasting successes, 1988’s ‘Macho Dancer’ combines a flair for socially conscious melodrama with pulp provocation, setting the template for what would become Viva Films’ erotic niche to this day. Underlying the film’s astute, cynical outlook on systemic, class-based exploitation in the Philippines is a neon-lit tale of self-discovery gyrating between queer desire and heteronormativity, sensuality and street-level grit, tenderness and violence. Heavily censored upon release and hugely successful overseas, ‘Macho Dancer’ follows the recent re-discovery of Brocka’s ‘Bona’ and is presented here in a new 4K restoration from Viva Film’s original film elements.”

Brocka died suddenly in 1991 amid a car accident after directing at least nine studio movies and dozens more independently. Most famously, he directed “Manila in the Claws of Light” from 1975 and is often regarded as the greatest Philippine movie of the 20th century. “Macho Dancer” was heavily censored upon release, but the new version fully restores Brocka’s vision from Viva Film’s original 35mm negative. It’s both a sensuous study of queer desire and an interrogation of corrupt urban power structures.

“Macho Dancer” arrives in theaters in 4K starting July 10 at IFC Center in New York, courtesy of Kani Releasing. Check out the film’s new trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.