Directing
Juan Baybayin searches for the early alphabet of the Filipino and the journey takes him to different kind of adventures. A personal insights of the filmmaker regarding the baybayin-the early Filipino writings before the Spanish colonizers came to the island.
Spanning from 1971 to 1987, in rural areas under the Marcos regime, a poor farming family struggle to overcome challenges brought on by corruption and greed for power.
Three stories, all first times
The trolley is a rail trolley; it moves by hand power over an old railway and is used as illegal transport by poor people in Manila. The trolley brings the film into contact with the trolley driver and his customers, and through that, it shows a cross-section of society, or better the poor part of society.
Imahe Nasyon is a groundbreaking, conceptual omnibus film by 20 alternative filmmakers who were tasked to present their personal visions on national issues. Renowned line producers Jon and Carol Red hatched the idea of revisiting the 1986 EDSA revolution, challenging directors to answer the question "What happened after 1986?" with a short film not longer than five minutes each. Despite individual techniques, the same goal is shared: to depict a truthful image of the nation at present.
A black comedy film, which focuses on two film workers, Raffy, the clapper, and Dido, a utility boy. Both share the same dream: to direct their own films someday. Their lives as mere "small production people" took a different turn when, together with the people in the unit van they were riding,had an encounter with armed men. Their co-workers were killed, and the two of them were forced to drive the unit van out of fear until it ran out of gas. The van contains equipment for movie production like cameras, lights and film stocks. They ended up in a secluded barrio not yet reached by modern technology, and therefore, the townsfolk knew nothing of the movie industry.
The lives of a matriarch, her two sons, and her niece are never the same again as they come to terms with an indiscretion in the family. A pivotal decision is made and a downward spiral ensues wherein the outcome can be no less than earth-shattering.
Delving into figures like the pseudohistorical Kalantiaw and President Bongbong Marcos, this documentary is a deep exploration of the post-truth era.
Starting out as a cartoonist for Jingle Magazine, Roxlee became a household name through the widely popular 'Cesar Asar' strip for Manila Bulletin. This film version includes footage from the short film Tito's Wedding, vividly portraying an aimless, idle life set in the small town in the Philippines, interwoven with keen observation on the social-political dilemma of the nation.
1901, Balangiga. Eight-year-old Kulas flees town with his grandfather and their carabao to escape General Smith's Kill & Burn order. He finds a toddler amid a sea of corpses and together, the two boys struggle to survive the American occupation.
In this whimsical historical fresco, a counterpoint to today’s urgent political issues, the figure of the Filipino revolutionary Rizal is revisited in the light of early silent films.
A story about a ten-year-old boy whose dream is to become a movie star. Pepot, the dreamer, is surrounded by people who are equally dazzled by the movie world from his own mother to the principal in his school to the impersonators in the neighborhood carnival. Coming from a poor family, Pepot overcomes adversity to have a chance at fulfilling his dream. He tackles school bullies, a strict teacher, and an unwelcoming world that fail to comprehend his intense desire to become a star. The story happens in the '70s when superstars brightened the film world in Pepot's country.
It is 1989. After losing his home, Allan Borromeo moves back into his mother’s house in Eden Homes, an upper middle class subdivision, with his wife Donna and teenage son Jasper. Here, their lives will change—Allan gets involved in a marijuana grow-op, Donna has an affair with their gardener, and Jasper experiences his first love and heartbreak. But unknown to the homeowners, a half-man, half-snake creature lurks and peers into their lives via home videos secretly recorded by Its creator, Waldo, a mad scientist.
Pandanggo has three stories with parallel themes converging in one event, the Kasilonawan Festival in Obando: a career woman learning to dance tango who is torn between her dance partner and live-in partner has to choose the man who will satisfy her dream of raising a family; a wife whose wish to conceive a baby boy to make her husband happy brings her feet to the festival, but fate has other plans of bringing the child into her life; and a modern woman who, amidst her medical condition that might render her childless for the rest of her life, finds connection with an ancient lore about fertility.
In dreary Porac Pampanga, a young man, Daniel, abandons his motherland after winning the biggest cash prize in the history of Philippine lottery. Five years later, he is searching for home and redemption through the people that make up his past. With each visit, his story unfolds like the last digit of a winning combination.
Documentary profiling the directors involved in the loose Philippine New Wave filmmaking movement.
A post-silent film on the travails and camaraderie of King Black, King Red, King Blue, King Yellow, King Green, King Purple, & King Orange, the seven rainbow [bahag-hari] kings [hari] of ethnic g-string [bahag] descent. Bouncing in their kombi van, from nature’s forest to the city’s jungle, the Bahag Kings descend from being noble rulers to village idiots as they search high & low for the missing “Wala” [Nothing]. And see how they handled a true-to-life police arrest.
Inkplay, playing with colors of ink as they move and spread like liquids.
A clashing collage of archival and found footage, presenting the colonial Philippine society in a sarcastic tone.
A reinvention of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in contemporary Manila as a rock musical.
