Machete Maidens Unleashed!: Mark Hartley

I find it strangely appropriate that Mark Hartley's documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed! doesn't have a wikipedia article. I had to do a little bit of digging to scrounge up details concerning this film. But then again, it takes a little digging to find the films that feature in this documentary. Machete Maidens Unleashed! examines the Filipino sub-genre of B-movies and exploitation films. From the 1970s-1990s, the Philippines were frequently used by low budget filmmakers as locations for cheap movie shoots. As one of the interviewees in the documentary states, the Philippines had three essential things for exploitation films: 1) exotic locations, 2) local labor that could be paid for in pennies, 3) droves of beautiful women who were ready and willing to get naked in front of the camera. Ironically made during the incredibly oppressive era of martial law under the rule of Ferdinand Marcos, the films that were made in the Philippines frequently featured revolutionaries, prison escapes, and hot, scantily clad women fighting against oppressors. The documentary starts with what was widely considered to be the first of the Filipino sub-genre, the Blood Island trilogy by Gerry de Leon and Eddie Romero. After making incredible profits from drive-in sales, filmmakers flocked to the Philippines to cash in on a cinematic gold rush. Directors from Roger Corman to Cirio H. Santiago to Bobby A. Suarez all took part in this movement, making everything from women-in-prison films to spoofs of James Bond spy movies (most notably with For Y'ur Height Only, which starred Weng Weng, an 83cm Filipino dwarf, as a secret agent). The material that Machete Maidens Unleashed! covers is fascinating, but the documentary itself feels occasionally flat and uninspired. But then again...maybe that's oddly appropriate.

6/10