Writing
An assassin, a porn dubber and a transgender. Three souls. One explicit illusion. To find the ultimate joy in their empty lives. A safe haven, where passion and love mean humanity, ecstasy means enlightenment; and the soul is the ultimate arbiter of the truth.
Abe, a woodcarver and artist, loses everything when his wife leaves him for another man. He falls in love with a woman who looks like his wife and calls her by his wife's name Nida, when in reality she is a prostitute named Cecile.
Hernan, a lowly informal dweller, gets engaged in a trivial property dispute with his neighbor. He is criminally charged with attempted murder after a heated altercation. He brings out a bolo from the kitchen to confront his neighbor. At that time his wife is slaving herself in Dubai as an OFW, and he is left to give unconditional care to her 2 children from her first marriage.
Middle-aged Manila storeowner Amelita supplements her tiny income by collecting bets for the popular numbers game of jueteng. While looking out for police crackdowns, the masterfully persuasive Amelita cajoles all comers into placing wagers.
Noel who has to assume the responsibility of being the breadwinner of the family after his father went missing.
Lando, a laid-back fisherman, enjoys joining the yearly "Aguman Sanduk" fellowship cross-dressing festivity with his peers of Alpha males as an enjoyable rest and recreation. Meanwhile, his mundane everyday life back in his isolated hut surrounded by fish pond waters is beset with a horrifying secret about him being physically abused by his wife, beating him to a pulp and sometimes degrades him verbally with no remorse constantly about women being linked to him. Lori, the wife, is set to leave for abroad as a domestic helper. She harbors ill feelings against Lando whom she caught meeting with his ex-girlfriend in a rendezvous. Her unusual violent streak becomes acceptably normal to Lando, who easily yields to his guilt. In a heated, passionate moment of desire, Lori steps back upon realizing that she doesn't love Lando anymore.
Pastor Luis Aguila and his family are seemingly tested with their faith. Luis is an ex-convinct who is now the head of his church. Mildred, his wife, tries to hide her secret as she grapples between her family and church duties. Their youngest son Carlo wrestles with growing up and tying up his family together. All of them try to overcome these obstacles but things intensify when Pastor Aguila's daughter, Katrina defies her family when she falls in love with the mysterious Jigo.
Regina, 75, takes every opportunity to line up in the government's arduous medical assistance dole out program just to secure mitigating financial help for her sick husband's increasing hospital bill. In the last two hours before she reaches the end of the line and receive help, Regina bears with her own debilitating illness due to old age, confronts a fixer condoning corruption, and temporarily leaves the line to look for her missing granddaughter who wanders off.
A story of a man with two different personalities. One is a blind cook accused of mass poisoning that killed his older lover, and the other is the smart, jolly imaginary friend of his six-year-old son.
Broken Blooms explores the travails of a young man dealing with the challenges of a blooming young marriage and his carefree and careless attitude towards morality and friendship—tested to the brink at the time the world cringes in the claws of a global pandemic.
A tribute to the real potential of digital cinema, Slingshot is a slum epic on steroids. It weaves stories left and right into a shocking tableau about life for the lowest of the low in the Philippines poorest and most crime-ridden districts. National elections are coming up so in the usual attempt to appear “tough-on-crime”, The Big Boys have been sent into crack down on the the local squatters, thieves and miscreants who litter the film like broken bottle. And since no sweep is ever a clean sweep, the cops brutal shock-force tactics quickly ripple outwards with jagged repurcussions.
A film based on a real life story of children ages 10-15 years old being used by a syndicate for underground wrestling.
Infinite struggles among four men in their twilight years, confined in a hospice facility or home for the aged. Their gray hair grows and fades unnoticed, their lives enter the void of oblivion. Everything unfolds so naturally into their swan song until their body pains and heartaches yield the same intensity, when their hearing and their feelings become permanently impaired; and when their blurry vision and memories become “clear” signs that the inevitable state of death is as fleeting as the vibrancy of life itself.
Thelma, together with her husband Dado and teenage sons Gerald and Yuri, are a poor urban family hired by a local foster care facility to provide temporary home and care to abandoned babies pending the latter's formal adoption.
The mountain-dwelling Aetas have been forced to settle in the lowlands by the sudden eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. With their settlements being closer to the government-funded schools of the Kapampangan townships, the Aeta children now have the opportunity to study. Jonalyn, one of the elementary school graduates of the ceremony depicted in the confused introduction and an Aeta, seeks to teach her elders to read and write a day before the National Elections. With Jonalyn's effort, the Aetas, for the very first time, have participated in the democratic process that has existed in the Philippines since the early part of the 20th century.
About the notorious batang hamog loitering in main thoroughfares such as EDSA.
The heart-tugging story of children who scavenge for metal scraps in the murky waters of Manila Bay, often risking their lives in the process.
Pipo makes ends meet by taking on the toughest jobs. Life is more difficult because he’s deaf. He supports himself and his teenage lover Cyril. His irate boss is getting difficult and Ben, his childhood friend wants his daughter Cyril back. Like a bomb, Pipo’s ticking to explode, anytime soon.
Lola Edna bears the challenges of her debilitating dementia, while killing time in a facility for the elderlies. She collects photos from occasional visitors, mostly strangers, in the hope of remembering her long-lost daughter and granddaughter. She's ill-tempered, a bully to the other old people and to her caregivers. Until she meets Angel, a new caregiver who tempers her behavior. Love-hate relationship ensues between them, until Lola Edna snaps to hurt herself. Contemplative transformation follows and she eventually finds a friend in Angel who not only pampers her with utmost care and attention, but also reunites her with the other grannies and caregivers. On her 65th birthday, Angel surprises her with a revelation that changes their relation from being best buddies, to becoming inseparable soulmates and kindred-spirits.
Blondie (Vivian Velez) is personified as three things: a hardworking businesswoman, a wife who’s been cheated on, and a mother of three. She is a 50-something woman with poor eyesight who works as an upfront candle vendor outside Quiapo church and sells Cytotec, an abortion pill, on the side.
