Lavrente Indico Diaz aka Lav Diaz is a filmmaker from the Philippines who was born on December 30, 1958 and raised in Cotabato, Mindanao. He works as director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer, poet, composer, production designer and actor all at once. He is especially notable for the length of his films, some of which run for up to eleven hours. That is because his films are not governed by time but by space and nature. His films are about the social and political struggles of his motherland and through these, he has garnered the admiration of the international festival circuit.

Since 1998 he has directed twelve films, and won several international awards. His 2002 film Batang West Side won Best Picture at the Singapore International Film Festival, plus awards at the Independent Film Festival of Brussels, Gawad Urian, and Cinemanila International Film Festival. He also received a Gawad Urian for his 2005 film Evolution of a Filipino Family and Special Jury Prize at the Fribourg International Film Festival in 2006 for Heremias, Book One. His film Death in the Land of Encantos, was the closing film of the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival 2007, and was awarded a Golden Lion Special Mention. His 2008 eight-hour film Melancholia, a story about victims of
summary executions, won the Orizzonti Grand Prize at the 65th Venice International Film Festival in 2008, and Florentina Hubaldo, CTE has received Best Film at Images
Festival, Toronto and Jeonju International Film Festival in 2012. In 2010 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2011 joined the Board of Directors for Cine Foundation International. The Venice Film Festival calls him “the ideological father of the New Philippine Cinema”.

In 2013, his film Norte, The End of History is presented at Un Certain regard Cannes Film
Festival and considered as “one of the most beautiful film seen in Cannes” (Jacques Mandelbaum, Le Monde) or even “quite possibly the best film there” (Daniel Kasman, Mubi), a “superb piece of focused narrative” (Jonathan Romney, Screen) –a broadened international recognition that earns him to be invited at FID Marseille to be part of the Official Competition Jury and eventually at the 2013 Locarno Film Festival as the President of the Jury. His film “Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon” (From What is Before) won the Golden Leopard in Locarno Film Festival. The following year, his eight-hour film “Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis” (A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery) won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize in Berlin International Film Festival and “Ang Babaeng Humayo” (The Woman Who Left) bagged the Golden Lion Prize in the Venice International Film Festival, the oldest film festival in the world.

 

Filmography

1998 Criminal of Barrio Concepcion (Serafin Geronimo: Kriminal ng Barrio Concepcion)
          132 min / color

1999 Burger Boys
          103 min / color

1999 Naked Under The Moon (Hubad sa Ilalim ng Buwan)
          110 min / color

2002 West Side Kid (Batang West Side)
          315 min / b/w and color

2002 Jesus, Revolutionary (Hesus Rebolusyunaryo)
         112min / color

2004 Evolution of a Filipino Family (Ebolusyon ng Isang Pamilyang Pilipino)
          343 min

2006 Heremias, Book One: The Legend of the Lizard Princess (Heremias, Unang Aklat: Ang Alamat ng Prinsesang Bayawak)
         540 min / color

2007 Death in the Land of Encantos (Kagadanan Sa Banwaan Ning Mga Engkanto)
         330 min / b/w

2008 Melancholia
         480 min / b&w
Award: Orizzonti Grand Prize, Venice Film Festival 2008

2011 Woman of The Wind (Babae ng Hangin)
           120 min / b&w

2011 Century of Birthing (Siglo ng Pagluluwal)
          360 min / b&w

2012 Florentina Hubaldo, CTE
          360 min / b&w
Awards: NETPAC Prize (Best Asian Film), Jeonju International Film Festival 2012
On Screen Award (Best Film, International Competition), The Images Festival
2012, Toronto

2013 Norte, The End of History (Norte, hangganan ng kasaysayan)
          250 min / color
Un Certain Regard, Cannes International Film Festival 2013

2014 From What is Before (Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon)
          270 mins / b&w
Award: Golden Leopard, Locarno International Film Festival

2016 Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis (Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery)
          480 mins / b&w
Award: Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize, Berlin International Film Festival 2016

2016 Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left)
          270 mins / b&w
Award: Golden Lion, Venice International Film Festival 2016

2017 Ang Panahon ng Halimaw (Season of the Devil)
          270 mins / b&w
Awards: Best Feature Film, Cine de Cartagena, Columbia; Best Film, Bildrausch Basel