The Campaign

Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (CARMMA), needed to tell the stories of young people killed during Martial Law, and petition the government to revise the textbooks and include historical truths about the atrocities during Ferdinand Marcos regime. What if, we brought back from the dead a victim of Martial Law to tell his story? We chose Archimedes Trajano, a 21-year old young man who was abducted, tortured and killed in 1977.

Creative Execution

We needed to review close to a hundred actors to play Archimedes Trajano and tell his story. Eventually, we found his doppelgänger. (https://www.facebook.com/boom.vida) The story of Archimedes has to be based on the truth and not on mere hearsay. The script was created using court documents and testimonies of witnesses. His narration was shot and uploaded a week before the anniversary of Martial Law in the Philippines. His story was used to petition the government to revise the textbooks and include historical truths about the atrocities during Marcos regime.

The film created conversations in social media, receiving thousands of comments like "Tanga dapat nga sa'yo patayin eh bastusin mo ba naman ang anak ng presidente kung di ka ba naman tanga." (Stupid! It was right for you to be killed. You disrespected the daughter of the President. You are so stupid.) This and more. The comment section already proves why we have to rewrite our history and continue to fight for the truth. Because of this film and the other efforts of CARMMA, the Department of Education of the Philippines has committed to a curriculum change that will show the "complete" picture of Martial Law, including the "corruption and human rights abuses" during that time.

This is captivating narration of what happened to a young man killed during Martial Law in the Philippines, 40 years ago.

To create empathy among Millennials for the victims of Martial law, we decided to feature the stories of victims who were young men and women, just like them.