WEBVTT - ’Kingmaker’ Explores Marcos Family Return to Power 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.680 You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:08.479 Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. I have toss up and 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:13.600 make myself more beautiful because the poor always looks for 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:17.600 I started in the dark of the night. All right. 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.599 That's a clip from a new documentary. It's all about 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.600 the former first Lady of the Philippines. Know now too 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:28.560 many ver addiction to excess. This documentary is called The Kingmaker, 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.400 and it is a interesting I mean, Jason, I've been 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:35.360 talking about it since we've watched um pieces of it. 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:37.440 But I do want to point out to that Bloomberg 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:40.240 has provided some support financial support for the film. Louren 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.960 Greenfield is director of the film. She's based in Venice Beach, California. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.400 Made her way to our New York studio. Welcome to Bloomberg. 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.280 Thank you so tell us a little bit about this well. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:54.200 I began filming in two thousand fourteen and never expected 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:57.920 the project to take five years. Um. It actually began 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.720 with a Bloomberg article by a journalist named William Miller 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.959 about this animal island that I had never heard of. 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.039 People know Amalta Marcos from the shoes, but this was 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:12.240 the kind of ultimate extravagance. She depopulated an island in 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.960 the South China Sea of its indigenous population and brought 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:21.720 in animals from Africa, and four generations later there they've 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:25.640 been inbred basically because no new animals, they have no support, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:30.520 no vets, no um not. The parents were gone, Ferdinand 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.559 and Amelda that brought them there. So the story began 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:38.759 with that. But what happened was Bong Bong, Amelda's son, 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.760 ran for the vice presidency and they were as a family, 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.000 they were kind of in the political wilderness. When I began, 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.360 no journalists thought they had a chance. But as he 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.400 began to be to gain steam and became the front runner, 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:58.000 the election story really took over the narrative of the film, 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.080 and so what began as a kind of historical film 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:06.200 about this kind of crazy extravagance turned into a present 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.760 day political story about the connection between wealth and power 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.880 and the possibility of rewriting history, which we've seen repeated. 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.720 I feel like around the globe, how timely right and 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.280 what's so amazing about this? And I've been very fortunate, 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:21.760 you know, Lauren and I have gott know each other 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.040 a little bit over the past years because of the 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.720 Bloomberg connection. And this is, as you say, such a 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:32.480 different film and incredibly timely in so many ways. And 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.359 even when you just watched the trailer, you think, oh 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.040 my god, this is and I say this a little 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:44.560 bit glibly but meaningfully, this is I mean, it's just remarkable. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.160 So when did you realize that the story had taken 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:50.520 such a sharp term. Was it around the election or 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:52.720 was there some reporting that you did that sort of 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.079 turned that light on for you? It was really um, Well, 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.360 the first stage was seeing how they were really trying 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.320 to come back to power. How Emelda was a congresswoman, 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:05.080 which I thought in the beginning was just kind of 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:07.760 a respectful thing to do to the former first Lady, 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.680 but gradually realized that it was part of a bigger plan. 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:13.960 Many of her kids were in politics, and when she 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.400 first when when he when Bong Moong first decided to 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.400 run for vice presidency, Bill Mallore at The Bloomberg Reporter 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.519 said he doesn't have a chance, and that's what people thought. 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.600 So I think the first real change was when he 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.000 became the front runner and it looked like he could 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.560 really take it. As um they were gaining steam, though 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.880 the past started dredging up into the present. People did 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.480 not the young people did not remember martial law, they 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.160 didn't remember the ills of the regime. And the Marcos 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:51.400 were really going about rewriting history through UM their narrative, 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:56.920 which was being kind of repeated in social media and UM. 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.920 As this started to kind of take hold, it became 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:05.960 clear that they could effectively come back. Lord. What did 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:10.040 you find most revealing in the process and in and 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.440 what about your access to the family, I mean the access. 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:17.120 I got the original introduction to Mrs Marcos through William Miller, 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.159 and she was very open, very candid. That was one 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.800 of the things that was so appealing about her as 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:28.880 a character. She UM, she was so charismatic, and I 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.120 think she really liked being on camera and having a 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.239 chance to tell her story as she saw it. UM. 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.120 What I realized, though, and the other turning point for me, 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:42.320 was she was an unreliable narrator to say the least. 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.400 That's kind of an understatement, and her view of history 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.320 and the marcus Is contributions did not align with any 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:53.279 historical or journalistic accounts or first person accounts. So I 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:57.320 started bringing in other people into the story. Truth tellers, 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:02.240 whether they were so survivors of martial law or like 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.719 Andy Bautista, who was head of the commission that was 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.640 going after the ill gotten wealth and then became head 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.719 of the elections, and these and even the president noy 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.839 Noya Kino and these people kind of gave relief or 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.880 or a check to the stories that the Marcus were telling. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:22.880 And I think in the movie you gradually see what 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:27.120 the truth that contrast right between what their perception or 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.599 her perception was and then what was going on in reality. 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:31.760 I thought was just told so well in the film. 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.040 And I think the surprising thing is in the past 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.880 people have just kind of mocked Mrs Marcos, like she's delusional, 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.839 or she's in her own world, or you know, laughed 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.040 at her laughable. But what you see in this film 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.160 is that she was able to really persuade a big 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.599 part of the electorate of her point of view, and 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.240 that she I mean, she's the only one laughing now 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.839 as they're back to power, which is a little bit 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:03.839 like how people didn't take Trump seriously in the beginning. Yeah, 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.280 there are some echoes. For sure. We'd be remiss if 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.560 we didn't help folks understand where this fits into sort 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.080 of your filmography because people know you from Generation Wealth, 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:19.800 especially Queen of Versailles. I mean you have undertaken now 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:24.240 for quite some time, an examination of wealth and power. 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.040 How does this fit into sort of the rest of 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.719 your catalog, as I mean, in some ways it's grown 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.360 out of my past work, out of Generation Wealth, but 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.320 in other ways it's really a departure for me. I 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.479 think she was always a Melta Marcos was always an 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.960 iconic reference in my work on wealth, the shoes and 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.960 this kind of materialism, and and when I first started 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:50.080 the Animal Island was like, uh, kind of the ultimate extraog. 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.839 And I was interested in inequality. I was interested in 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:59.840 the consequences of wealth intended and unintended. But I had 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.880 ever done a political story before, and that was really 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.520 a departure for me. Um I really kind of got 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:10.760 interested in the connection between power and wealth. And there 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.280 was a kind of a follow the money story in 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.040 this where we see how the money allowed that that 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:20.000 was not repatriated to the Philippines allowed them to come 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.200 back in a place where there is corruption, you can 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.840 buy votes, and you can buy influence, and you can 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:31.160 use it to to to kind of disseminate your social 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.040 media message. Jason and I were talking when we kicked 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.920 off that there's a generation that doesn't even remember her. 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.200 I'm just thinking here, certainly in the United States, it 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.120 is definitely a Mussie. Thank you so much for coming by, 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:43.280 Thanks for talking with us about it. Yeah, the movie 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:45.760 is The Kingmaker. It's out in theaters on November eight, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:51.400 and we'll air on Showtime in Greenfield. Is the Filmmaker again? 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:53.640 The movie is called The Kingmaker. I'm going to pull 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:55.480 it back to the magazine too. It's all about the 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.040 year ahead of Bloomberg Business Week, but it also talks 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.800 about power, whether in Washington, whether it's among the big 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:05.120 tech companies. Right now. I mean, all of this is 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:10.080 on everybody's radar, certainly among politicians, among individuals, as part 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.800 of our conversation, big conversation, and rightfully so.