Mike De Leon · Author
Patrick F. Campos · Editor
Tom Estrera III · Designer
Contra Mundum Publishing · 2022 · Two volumes
Mike De Leon’s Last Look Back is a memoir of a life in Philippine cinema. Through personal recollections, family photographs, and film materials, De Leon traces his upbringing within LVN Pictures, his development as a filmmaker, and the people and political histories that shaped his work. Across two volumes, family memory and studio history meet an intimate account of filmmaking.
From the editor’s note
My role in the writing of this volume, Mike De Leon’s memories of a life of cinema, is that of an invisible interlocutor. I had earlier written a lengthy chapter on Mike’s works in a book which I was surprised to glimpse sitting in Jake Herrera’s bookshelf. I learned later that designer, chronicler, archivist, and now sorely missed mentor, Cesar Hernando, gave Mike a copy while they were making Citizen Jake. Shortly after the film’s premiere at the University of the Philippines Film Institute, I received an invitation from Mike.
[…]
I broached the idea that Mike could write the book himself, and I am glad that he did. When he invited me to edit the work, I took the job wearing the researcher’s hat, welcoming the opportunity to interview him and see his work according to how he saw it.
[…]
From the drafts and the volume of our correspondence, I carved out sections, sculpting the mass more than editing it, picking out lines and passages even from our informal conversations and placing them in contexts that would make new connections.
[…]
For us, it is a guidepost for writing our film history. But more than that, it provides intimate access to how an artist, whose cinema has helped define our journey as a nation, remembers his country’s history, giving flesh to memory and reasons as to why there are things we should never forget.
“It’s like sitting in a masterclass with De Leon as the only teacher.”
— Totel V. de Jesus, Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 23, 2022
“De Leon was a singular voice in Philippine cinema, something that became more and more evident while reading Last Look Back …”
— Don Jaucian, Rolling Stone Philippines, September 16, 2025
View the book’s design and more photographs on Tom Estrera III’s website ↗