Miguel Pamintuan De Leon, also known as Mike De Leon, is a noted Filipino film director, cinematographer, scriptwriter and film producer. He was born in Manila on May 24, 1947 to Manuel De Leon and Imelda Pamintuan. His interest in filmmaking began when he pursued a master's degree in Art History at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. De Leon first made two short films namely: 'Sa Bisperas', 1972, and 'Monologue', 1975.
He established the Cinema Artists Philippines in 1975. He produced Lino Brocka's 'Manila in the Claws of Light', while also acting as the said film's cinematographer in 1975. For 'Manila in the Claws of Light', De Leon won best cinematography awarded by the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences. De Leon's films are a full reflection of the Filipino psyche that sought answer for questions on social class belonging, political absurdities, and fragmentation's in various form.
His first major full-length work was, 'The Rites of May', in 1976. It was an in-depth study of guilt and violence and shows De Leon's delicate balancing of cinematic elements to project mood and character. It was voted by the Philippine's Urian Awards as one of the '10 Outstanding Films of the Decade: 1970–1979'. The film also won him the best director award during the 1978 Asian Film Festival held in Sydney, Australia.
When De Leon created 'Moments in a Stolen Dream' in 1977, it became a tribute to his grandmother Dona Sisang to celebrate the family's film company (LVN Pictures). Known for his varied experiments in styles of directing, he pushed the birth of the new musical in 'Will Your Heart Beat Faster?' which won De Leon the Urian award for best director. His other works include 'In the Blink of an Eye' (1981), 'Batch '81' (1982) and 'Sister Stella L' (1984). In these films he tackled social and political issues with powerful and disturbing imagery.
His blockbuster film, 'Heaven Is Not Divided' (1985) was an adaptation from an earlier Filipino version of the same title. In 1987, De Leon also made 'Prisoner in the Dark', a full-length video commissioned by Sony Entertainment. De Leon explored subjects such as incest, fraternity violence, and the Filipino workers' cause. These were themes that were portrayed in the films 'In the Blink of an Eye', 'Batch '81' and 'Sister Stella L' respectively. These films became cinematic masterpieces in Philippine History of Filmography and later listed as the Philippines's '10 Outstanding Films of the Decade: 1980–1989' by the Philippines (FAP) where De Leon also won a best screenplay award for 'Sister Stella L'.
De Leon won best director and best screenplay in the Philippines's Urian Awards in 1984, 'In the Blink of an Eye' and 'Batch '81' were presented during the Directors' Fortnight at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. The film 'Sister Stella L'. was an entry during the 1985 Venice Film Festival. De Leon pioneered the use of computer graphics animation for the TV advertising industry in 1988. De Leon's film, 'Aliwan Paradise', became a part of the Southern Winds in 1993, which is a collection of four films from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan (both NHK and The Japan Foundation commissioned the film anthology).
