Go "beyond the shoes," and the public mythology of oft-caricatured Imelda Marcos, fallen diva of the Filipino dictatorship. Ramona Diaz enjoyed unprecedented access to Imelda's colorful life as she was welcomed into her mansion, video archive, and unpublished books. The portrait that emerges is of a curiously magnetic yet disconnected personality, hopelessly adrift in her remembrances of her husband's dictatorship and her role in it — most of her comments are refuted by archival footage and witnesses — but mysteriously sympathetic despite it all. Exquisitely edited, this is a swirling stew of politics, personality, and personal responsibility, as the fantastic Imelda opines philosophically while the hoi polloi outside her tinted-glass limousine clamor for autographed pictures. (PS)(PS)

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