Director
James Jones
Director
Oliver Sarbil
Production support
Film Details
Format: Short film
Doc Society Involvement
Docsoc helped with Production
The searing story of President Duterte's bloody campaign against drug dealers and addicts in the Philippines, told with unprecedented and intimate access to both sides of the war - a kill squad in the Manila police, and an ordinary family from the slum. Shot over almost a year, the film will forensically investigate a murky world where crime, drugs and politics meet in a deathly embrace - and reveal that although the police have been publicly ordered to stop extra-judicial killings, the executions continue.
Awards & Festivals
Awards
Reviews
A wholly cinematic, sensory experience, with straight-ahead reportage electrified by glaring streetlights and a panicked urban wall of sound...
With its remarkable access and precise tone On The President's Orders draws us in, making us aware of our own inadequacies to elicit change.
A shockingly alarming investigation produced with the sensibilities of a social realist drama, Sarbil and Jones' nonfiction warning should petrify U.S. viewers immeasurably.
A riveting account of the consequences of unfettered demagoguery.
The thesis of "On the President's Orders" isn't terribly original, but in a needlessly roundabout way, it makes its case...
Told in frightening close-up, this is an uncompromising film that will make any audience member sit up.
On the President's Orders is the disturbing observational documentary we've needed about the Philippines drug war, made with finesse and astonishing access.
Though it's somewhat uneven and its attempts to construct a narrative are not always successful, there's some powerful material here.
The film is very much shot like a political thriller, but this is pure fact rather than glamourized Hollywood fiction, which makes it even more disturbing and hard-hitting.
Not much more to say, if you want to learn about the actual circumstances of the War on Drugs, look no further, "On the President's Orders" provides the perfect opportunity.
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