Lauren Greenfleld’s documentary about the legendarily extravagant Imelda Marcos (who at 84 granted the filmmaker remarkable access) starts with the obvious: the shoes! The Picassos and Old Masters! The closets overflowing with dresses! The swarm of servants at her beck and call! All this you would expect from the razor-sharp eye of the director of The Queen of Versailles. Greenfield lets the former first lady of the Philippines benignly brush aside any suggestions of corruption in her husband’s long and brutal reign, and then she builds a movie around her that puts the lie to her dulcet disclaimers. The Kingmaker shows us the dynastic ambitions of the Marcos clan, and gives us the political context that allowed Imelda to rise to a position of enormous power. It’s all here, from the glamor to the cutthroat, in this remarkable portrait of a woman whose ambition is still in overdrive.

Director Lauren Greenfield is expected to be in attendance on January 8 and 9.