Writing
An intimate documentary on the lives and artistic journeys of Renato Habulan, Egai Fernandez, Pablo Baens-Santos, Jess Abrera, and Antipas Delotavo - pioneers of the Philippine Social Realist movement. Centered on the founding of KAISAHAN in 1976, the film examines how the realities of Martial Law under the Marcos dictatorship shaped a generation of artists committed to social engagement through their work. It also highlights the crucial role of CAYA (Center for the Advancement of Young Artists) in nurturing the movement's early development. Through personal reflections and historical and contemporary perspectives, the documentary traces the artists' shared ideals and divergent paths, revealing the challenges, convictions, and creative resilience that affirm their enduring vision of art as a force that shapes Filipino identity—as witness, critic, and visionary. Created in part through a grant of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts.
Concerto is about how, in the last part of World War II, a special piano concert is held in the forest outside Davao City, in Mindanao. In these boondocks, a displaced Filipino family, lead by Military Commander Ricardo and his wife Julia, become acquainted with a group of Japanese officers, similarly camped nearby. Their son Joselito, a Japanese speaker, becomes the conduit with the neighboring Japanese. Their daughters Niña, an aspiring concert pianist and the musically gifted, Maria, who is able to play by ear, are alternately repulsed and intrigued by the officers. Family values are questioned as the family treads the thin line between enmity and friendship with the occupying Japanese. Based on true stories from the director's own family history, Concerto celebrates a family whose reverence for life, expressed through their love of music and friendship, can survive even war, and shows how beauty and compassion does grow in even the harshest of conditions. - Written by anonymous
