Writing
A small town in the Philippines is turned upside down by the arrival of a film crew that has everyone excited. Meanwhile, 13-year-old Lukas finds his own world overturned when he is told that his father is a tikbalang (half horse, half man). His father’s disappearance leaves Lukas to try to unravel the mystery of his own heritage and his own nature.
A grieving detective finds himself increasingly ensnared while investigating a case involving a sinister navigation app causing physical and psychological debris.
An examination of poverty and violence and the influence it has on two boys who live in a slum.
Set during the first quarter storm in the 1970s, policemen Homer, Conrad, and Billy are consumed by the murder case of troublemaking teenagers in the slums.
Jungle Love follows a handful of people who have disappeared into the jungle: a woman who has kidnapped her sister's child; an urbane couple and their indigenous guide; a bored and horny platoon; and a nameless tribe. Disappearance has another meaning in Sanchez’s native Mindanao, where a decades-old conflict between the government and secessionists fighting for an Islamic state has made the region infamous for its kidnappings. Sanchez took inspiration from an incident in which a friend living abroad visited an exhibition, and found a photo of him labeled as one of the disappeared. Jungle Love is permeated with this sense of the uncanny, as narratives and identities fracture and fuse into one another in the reckless, lonely places people go to escape themselves.
Sarah is a debt collector who lives among the inhabitants of the village of Guimbal on the island of Panay. She wants to find the young man who appeared to her in a dream and goes to the island of Negros. Here, as she interacts with the inhabitants, Sarah continues her search, gathering memories of life and war, dreams, myths, legends, songs and stories that she takes part in and at times revolve around her. She is the daughter of an ancient mermaid, a revolutionary, a primordial element, a virgin who was kidnapped and hidden away from the sunlight. “The film is a retelling of fragments of the American occupation. Dialogue, shot in the Hiligaynon language, is not translated but used as a tonal guide and a tool for narration. Using unscripted scenes shot where the main character was asked to merely interact with the villagers, I discard dialogue and draw meaning from peoples’ faces, voices, and actions, weaving an entirely different story through the use of subtitles and inter-titles.”
This film was shot around the Bangkerohan River in Davao City on the southern Filipino island Mindanao. This area is the backdrop to degrading poverty that apparently can lead to degrading morality. A young girl watches with resignation. She works as mananaptan, someone who sings during funerals for the dead. And more services are expected of her. Fatally indifferent surroundings let it all happen.
A woman struggling to meet airline baggage requirements meets a man who comes to her aid. They form a friendship that helps them mend each other's hearts.
In a town where friars lord it over the laymen and peasants, trust is a foreign word. As the townspeople prepare a despedida for the dismissed Mayor, suspicions arise, unraveling secrets that could change the course of their history.
A news team investigating rumors of aswang killings in a remote barrio are attacked by a group of soldiers, forcing them to run for their lives in the deeps of the forest, where more mystery and danger lay in wait.
Gigi from Arakan Valley is a woman rebel who teaches young comrades the facets of their struggle as they remain to be in waiting after they were ambushed. In a nearby village, Junjun and his fellow soldiers take a rest. He attempts to chance upon a girl he longs for, but instead encounters a balyan/tagbawian (shaman) in a very disturbing situation. Somewhere, two kids, Abyan and Busaw, trek the forest back to their mother. Huling Balyan ng Buhi : O Ang Sinalirap nga Asoy Nila weaves the tales of rebels in waiting, playful soldiers at rest and a troubled balyan (village healer) in a very ambiguous predicament. A quandary that will usher them all to one encounter that can bring to light the questions of transcendence.
Documentary profiling the directors involved in the loose Philippine New Wave filmmaking movement.
After ending her toxic relationship with her boyfriend Ben, 40-year-old Alice discovers she is pregnant. With her age and current relationship status, her first instinct is to have the pregnancy terminated. As her body undergoes dramatic changes, Alice struggles and needs to decide what to do. Will she slide back into the arms of Ben? What will this mean for the child growing inside her?
A story focusing on a elite law school fraternity, it follows a week in the lives of a neophyte, a master, and a lawyer alumnus, and crosses the lines of money, power and connections within Manila’s society.
Filmmaker John Torres describes his childhood and discusses his father's infidelities.
