Making ‘Edjop’: Direk Katski Flores on The Journey of a Biopic

(SPOT.ph) The biopic of martial law hero, Edgar “Edjop” Jopson, has been a long time coming. In 2021, someone finally took the challenge of making it and is now in the thick of completing the film despite funding concerns, the current political climate, and the overall state of Philippine cinema where even mainstream films struggle to find an audience.

The movie continues to be in production because there are people who are convinced it must be done. “Everybody on board is really working because they believe in the project,” says Katski Flores, who is at the helm of Edjop as director, co-writer, and creative director. It was Joyette Jopson, Edjop’s second child, who approached Flores during a high school reunion to ask if she wanted to direct her dad’s "long overdue" biopic. It helps that Jopson and Flores knew each other since they were 12 and were classmates at St. Theresa’s College.

“When she pitched it to me, sabi ko, oo, kasi fan ako ni Edjop. I grew up knowing who Joyette was and who her father was,” says Flores. She adds that it’s common among Theresians to be very aware of different social issues given the school’s strong social studies curriculum.  

Before Jopson approached Flores, a sequence treatment was already in place but there was no director on board. The latter agreed to do the film on the condition that she starts from scratch and that she works with her own team, which Jopson agreed to.

Flores got to work by tapping some of the best creatives in the indie film industry. The Edjop team is composed of Neil Daza (Emir, Fan Girl, Blue Room) as cinematographer, Jade Castro (Endo, Zombadings, Patayin sa Shokot si Remington) as writer, Erik Manalo (Saving Sally, Nuuk) as production designer, and Maki Sarmiento (Last Fool Show, Gusto Kita With All My Hypothalamus) as line producer. Flores says these names have been strong advocates of the film and many agreed to have their usual talent fees reduced for the sake of making the project a possibility. Daza, for one, was all in from the very start. He grew up in a family of activists and very much understands the milieu in which the Edjop story revolves.

Flores has decades of television and film work behind her. She was the head writer for different soaps, among them the first John Lloyd Cruz-Bea Alonzo teleserye, Kay Tagal Kitang Hinintay. She also worked as screenwriter for Dreamboy, and directed a number of indie films including Still Life and Ang Pagsanib Kay Leah Dela Cruz. Edjop is her biggest project to date.

Edjop, from reformist to revolutionary

The film follows the story of a young Edjop played by actor Elijah Canlas. Edjop was an upper middle class, academically brilliant student from Ateneo who later becomes a student activist. Says Flores: “We were interested in unpacking that journey of Edjop from somebody who was an intellectual and a moderate reformist and then [suddenly] became an underground revolutionary, turning his back to a life of privilege and to his family. Bayan yung naging priority niya.”

For the director, Edjop’s story can be the journey of any fiery and passionate Gen Z or young millennial today. “He came from solid principle and conviction, then he went one step further--he acted on it,” Flores says.

Edjop’s story will be juxtaposed with that of his daughter Joyette (Jodi Sta. Maria) who took a different path in life as a professional athlete. The younger Jopson was only three years old when her father was executed on September 21, 1982 following his arrest during a military raid in Davao. Edjop was 34.

In the film, Flores explores that common ground between father and daughter that has allowed them both to pursue their chosen paths with a single-minded drive. Joyette Jopson, as an elite triathlete, defied big odds in her field just like her dad. In 2019, she brought pride to the country as the first Filipina to run a marathon in the Arctic and became the first Asian female to claim first place in the women’s category of the 42-kilometer FWD ‘78° North’ Marathon in 2019. Parts of the film will also explore the impact of Edjop’s legacy on the other Jopson siblings and on his wife Gloria Maria “Joy” Asuncion (Frankie Pangilinan) who worked alongside him during the struggle.

Not a reckoning, a remembering

Now on its fourth year of production, Flores is keen on finishing the project this 2024. “Since 2021 and gradually all the way to the end of 2022, wala na akong time gumawa ng anything else except Edjop. Ang dami ko rin moments na, ‘why the ef am I doing this?’,” she tells Spot.

Flores hopes to pick up from where movies like Sister Stella L, Dekada 70s, Bata, Bata Pa'no Ka Ginawa, A Dangerous Life, and Eskapo have left off and leave, at the very least, an acknowledgement of the past amid all the white washing, historical distortionism, and disinformation muddling up history today. “In a pitch [for a grant], I said this is not a reckoning but a ‘remembering’. At the very least we shouldn’t be afraid to look at our past and recognize it for what it was.”