sure, but there's a big difference between one person playing a character of a different background and a whole people or community being passed off for another one. the first may have its own issues, but the second just comes across, at least to me, as unsatisfactory and likely racist, especially when they are people of color being represented for mostly white audiences who will perpetuate the "all asians look alike" stereotype.

by the way, that wasn't coppola who released the documentary. it was his wife's footage, and his wife also published her diary of the filming, which also has lots of insight.

i see your point about the personal relationship between the director and his project. but that's a tired narrative, isn't it? the white man whose bloated sense of self excuses his exploitation of the world. isn't that colonialism at its finest?

i'm not saying i don't enjoy the film, or that i don't see what issues it explicitly raises about u.s. intervention, war, colonialism, etc. but it is implicated in those discourses in ways it is not so aware of, in particular how it uses the philippines and the filipinos as the setting for the film's production.