My Friend the Terrorist
The mission of the Centre d'art et essai de la Cinémathèque québécoise (CAECQ) is to primary program Quebec-made documentaries and independent fiction, as well as international documentaries, animated and foreign films, while encouraging opportunities for meetings between the public and the artists. Its programming is presented in conjunction with the Cinémathèque québécoise’s under the label New releases.
The Decembre 20 screening will be subtitled in French
The December 21 screening will be subtitled in English
Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
For the first 25 years of his adult life Jose Maria Sison was known to various degrees as the Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara of the Philippines. For the last 35 years of his life he has been living in exile, 10,000 km away from the bustle, the intrigue, the bribery and the squalor of Manila, in the tranquil medieval city of Utrecht, the Netherlands.
In the 1960s Jose Maria Sison founded the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the CPP’s guerrilla-military arm, the New People’s Army (NPA), among other noble and nefarious activities that led to his Philippine passport being revoked in 1987. To the US State Department, the Philippine government, and some European authorities, Sison is a certified terrorist.
With his wife Julie he lives a hand-to-mouth Spartan existence and yet they are the most charming couple. This is their love story: their love for each other, their love of country, and the love of many of their compatriots for them.
Malcolm Guy
Malcolm Guy is a director and producer of documentary and fiction films, President and co-founder of Productions Multi-Monde. Malcolm is active in immigrant rights organizations and in the independent film community. He contributed to establishing the international film fest Rencontres International du Documentaire de Montréal (RIDM), the Observatoire du Documentaire, the distribution company Les Films du 3 Mars, and is a member of DOC (the Documentary Organisation of Canada). He is a founding member of the Centre for Philippine Concerns in Montreal and is presently a member of the executive.
Demetri Estdelacropolis
Demetri Estdelacropolis is a Québécois filmmaker and screenwriter. He is known for his films Mother’s Meat Freud’s Flesh (1984), Shirley Pimple in the John Wayne Temple of Doom (2000), and My Friend the Terrorist (2024), co-directed by Malcolm Guy.
