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come of the animals on

Calauit.

“There are no animals on

Calauit,” Marcos replied with

certainty.

Except that Greenfield

knew that wasn’t the case.

She had already been to the

island herself, camping

among pythons and eland

antelope. There was no fresh

water, cellphone service or

electricity. But there were

dozens of animals.

Exploring the truth

“I found out that a lot of

things she said were not true

or did not align with histori-

cal accounts or first-person

testimonials,” Greenfield

said, reflecting on the inter-

view. “So I kind of let her tell

her story. She’s one of those

people that is so strong that

you just have to catch what

comes to you. There’s no

guiding or — ‘Can we talk

about this?’ She gives you

what she wants to give you.

She’s in control.”

But “The Kingmaker,” as

the documentary would go

on to be called, is not without

context. The movie, which

premiered at the Venice Film

Festival in August and opens

in select cities including Los

Angeles this weekend, is a

portrait of a woman whose

words are often in stark con-

tradiction with reality. Best

known for owning 3,000 pairs

of shoes, Marcos was often

depicted in the international

media as the epitome of

glamour, drawing compari-

sons to Jackie Kennedy. Dur-

ing her husband’s reign —

which began in 1965 and

ended in 1986 — the dictator

became increasingly contro-

versial, eventually imposing

martial law in the Phil-

ippines. But the affable Mar-

cos was mostly able to retain

a positive reputation, sent by

her husband to charm the

likes of Moammar Kadafi,

Saddam Hussein and Rich-

ard Nixon.

By the time Greenfield got

to her, she was in her 80s, hav-

ing returned from the U.S. to

her native country in 1991. She

and her husband — who died

in 1989 — had been accused of

embezzling between $5 and

$10 billion from the Filipino

people during their time in

power. Nevertheless, she was

still embraced by many in the

nation, running numerous

times for congress and win-

ning.

“For her to get voted in, I

was, like, ‘How does that hap-

pen?’” Greenfield recalled of

her early interest in Marcos.

“I actually thought this might

be a redemption story for her.

I think there was always a

question of how much was

her and how much was her

husband. She was a young in-

nocent when they got to-

gether.”

Growing up, however,

Greenfield viewed Marcos as

an iconic figure not so much

because of her politics but be-

cause of her extensive shoe

collection. Since the incep-

tion of her career, the film-

maker has been interested in

exploring beauty, wealth and

power. Her first documenta-

ry, 2006’s “Thin,” examined

female obsession with body

image by centering on an eat-

ing disorder clinic. In 2012, she

made “The Queen of Ver-

sailles,” about a rich Floridian

couple determined to build

the largest single-family

home in America. She has

also viewed luxury through

photography, snapping im-

ages of Beverly Hills teen-

agers in convertibles and rap-

pers with diamond grills on

their teeth.

As a teenager, Greenfield

attended the private Cross-

roads School in Santa Moni-

ca, where many of her class-

mates had famous Holly-

wood parents. Greenfield,

meanwhile, was the daughter

of professors who were more

interested in joining local

communes than buying their

child the trendiest clothes.

“I was like, ‘Wait, I need

this to fit in!’ and my parents

would say, ‘What? You

don’t!’” said the filmmaker,

53. “I think that started my in-
    terest in class. I wanted the
    things the other kids had. I’ve
    always kind of had that desire
    and tried to deconstruct it.”
    From the outset of “The
    Kingmaker,” it is clear that
    appearance is important to
    Marcos. As she prepares to sit
    down for an interview with
    Greenfield, a swarm of assist-
    ants surround her, touching
    up her made-up face with
    powder.
    “Is my makeup OK? Can
    you check? Go check,” she
    implores her staff. “How
    about my tummy? It doesn’t
    look big?”
    “It’s visible, but it is not ob-
    vious,” an employee replies.
    Greenfield believes beauty
    and money “have a moral
    purpose” for Marcos. In the
    film, the politician says she
    views herself as a “star in the
    dark of night” for the poor —
    meaning she dresses extrava-
    gantly and pushed her hus-
    band to build elaborate pal-
    aces so the impoverished
    could have beauty in their
    lives too.
    “This wasn’t a wealth
    story like anything I’ve done
    before,” the filmmaker said.
    “It wasn’t wealth for materi-
    alism or showing off — it was
    wealth for power and admira-
    tion. She loves the people lov-
    ing her.”
    The filmmaker R.J. Cutler,
    who met Greenfield when
    they were both undergradu-
    ates at Harvard University,
    said he’s noticed a major evo-
    lution in her work since he
    produced her first documen-
    tary. Teaming up with her in
    the same role on “The King-
    maker,” Cutler said he sees
    her latest film as “Lauren’s vi-
    sion fully realized.”
    “She’s an artist in full
    bloom,” said Cutler, who went
    head to head with Anna Win-
    tour while making “The Sep-
    tember Issue.” “She’s able to
    fully describe Imelda while al-
    lowing her own voice to be
    fully heard. She has the abil-
    ity to illuminate something
    through a moment or ges-
    ture, so the audience makes
    their own keen observations.
    Imelda deserves a slicing
    open that no one can do like
    Lauren.”
    What Cutler is referring to
    is the way in which the film
    juxtaposes Marcos’ state-
    ments with opposing footage.
    After she asserts there are no
    animals left on Calauit,
    Greenfield cuts to a group of
    zebras grazing. When she in-
    sists martial law was the best
    thing to happen to the Phil-

ippines, Greenfield moves to

interviews with political pris-

oners who were tortured at

the hands of the government.

Despite claims that she has

been robbed of her wealth,

the filmmaker shows her in a

room with a Picasso painting

hanging from the wall.

Duty as director

“I definitely felt a respon-

sibility to have the audience

know what was truth and

what was not,” Greenfield

said. “The thing I respect

about her is that she’s willing

to take the hard questions.

But what you find out is her

worldview, which is her own

world. They were rewriting

history — that’s what I was

seeing. Her view of the past

didn’t align with anything I

had read.” Marcos — who is

now 90 and has yet to see

“The Kingmaker” — has

been the subject of a docu-

mentary before: 2003’s

“Imelda.” The movie, di-

rected by Ramona S. Diaz,

was well-reviewed and tracks

many of the same highs and

lows in Marcos’ life. Green-

field said she watched Diaz’s

“terrific” movie as part of her

research, but also noted that

“in the 16 years between the

two films, it is unbelievable

how much the story about

Imelda Marcos, the family’s

stature and the political situ-

ation of the Philippines has

changed.”

Andy Bautista, one of the

subjects in “The Kingmaker,”

said he learned “snippets of

truth” from the film that even

he had been previously un-

aware of. Bautista is the for-

mer chairman of the Phil-

ippines’ Presidential Com-

mission on Good Govern-

ment — the group tasked

with tracking down the Mar-

cos’ ill-gotten wealth. It

wasn’t until he watched the

new documentary that he

heard Marcos openly reveal

she has money in 170 global

bank accounts.

“Lauren was able to pick

up a lot of things that I wish

the people knew,” said

Bautista. “The lessons that

you can learn from this film

are particularly important

for the Filipino people, but

they are universally applica-

ble in the sense that you can

see that the rise of authori-

tarianism in various parts of

the world. It should help raise

red flags.”

By the end of her time

abroad — eight trips over five

years — Greenfield said she

was continually drawing par-

allels between the Phil-

ippines and the U.S. In 2016,

Rodrigo Duterte was elected

president of the Southeast

Asian country, with mutual

support from the Marcos

family; he quickly began

clamping down on freedom of

the press and encouraging

the police to use force in the

drug war.

“And once Trump was

elected, he started to attack

the media, and our demo-

cratic institutions started to

feel endangered in a way I

had never imagined before,”

she said. “I saw the linkage,

and I was definitely thinking

about how fragile everything

we take for granted is — how

in one election, it can just go

away, and you can go back to

a past you never thought you

would have.”

LAUREN GREENFIELDsays she felt a responsibility to let the audience know what in the film is factual.

Jay L. ClendeninLos Angeles Times

It’s not just a walk in the

shoes of Imelda Marcos

[‘Kingmaker,’from E1]

FORMERPhilippines First Lady Imelda Marcos

makes claims that the documentary debunks.

Lauren Greenfield