Heroes

Crucible of Empire demonstrates how and why the Spanish-American War constitutes such an important milestone in U.S. history. This program examines the events and attitudes that led to war, followed by an exploration of the conflict and its outcome. Early film footage and stills of battle scenes, plus rich visuals, a compelling story, and intriguing analogies to current foreign policy make Crucible of Empire a riveting documentary.

Boses (Voices) is the story of a musician named Ariel who offers violin lessons to a child of the slums. Through the violin, the abused child Onyok is able to get back his voice from a mute, desensitized existence. A violin teacher and his student, a mute 7-year old abused child in a shelter, develop a friendship stemming from their love of music. Ariel discovers the immense talent of Onyok hiding behind a veneer of silence and pain caused by an unhappy and cruel father. In the developing relationship of teacher and student, both characters reveal more of themselves that otherwise may have remained unspoken. They discover each other's strengths and failures through the violin lessons.

When it is time for her to give birth, Andrea, a communist insurgent seeks refuge in the city to her best friend Joyce. When Andrea's husband is reportedly killed, she temporarily leaves her son to their care. But before Andrea could return to her baby, she is arrested by the military. With no news of Andrea's whereabouts and presuming her to have been dead, the childless couple decided to keep the child and bring him to the United States. Upon returning to the country after seven years for a visit, Andrea confronts them and tries to claim his son back.

A erotic drama chronicles the amorous exploits of a winsome young bride. When her affluent but crippled spouse fails to fulfill her physical desires, she seeks sexual satisfaction outside her marriage by taking a lover. Sunshine Cruz delivers a standout performance in a supporting role.

Opon + Pasil + Tres + Echavez + Naval + Ormoc + Valencia. It’s Saturday and it’s black.

The title “Kamera Obskura” is a Filipino spelling of the latin “Camera Obscura” which simply means “dark room”. The film’s concept adheres to formalist cinema, where the filmmaker’s thesis is to make a semblance of a vintage film seemingly produced sometime in the late 1920s to early 1930s in the Philippines. The thesis is to conjure up a film from a period that did not really exist in Philippine cinema’s historical cultural heritage as we know it, such as a pseudo-expressionist / experimental Filipino cinema of the silent film era. It is a film within a film. The narrative plays with the idea of a retro-futurist world where a prisoner locked away in a dark chamber for over two decades only sees the reality of the world outside through the small hole in his cell, which projects an image of the city on his wall, the phenomenon of the “camera obscura”.

Every night, Nana Lusing lies on her bed sleepless because she sees a dark figure looming in her room. Who is this shadow? Is this the devil? Her late husband? A manifestation of her anxieties? Or simply a figment of her imagination?

Intoy has had the hots for Doray since they were kids in Kalye Marino, Cavite City, formerly the American Naval Base in Sangley Point. Both marginalized as the long-lasting effect of American abandonment of the said base, Intoy has become Kalye Marino’s best “tahong” caretaker-with-no-angst-about-poverty, while Doray a cheap prostitute-with-no-guilt, tending to her siblings’ needs. Intoy strives to have his own cages of “tahong” so he can have Doray, not for just a night of quickie sex, but forever. But what will he do to when she offers to drop by his hovel-on-stilts to quench his passion, but before it happens Nature has chosen to play a joke on his tahong cage? Will it be goodbye to his tahong business or to his damsel-in-distress and ultimately to Kalye Marino? From Eros S. Atalia’s 2001 Palanca Grand Prize-winning Short Story, Intoy Syokoy ng Kalye Marino is a love tale minus the obligatory romantic sentiments.

Guam, U.S.A. Thursday, November 24, Thanksgiving Day. Alex, a local newspaper photographer, gets into a “green card marriage” with her good friend James, a Guam-born Filipino. Miriam, a former member of the Philippine press and now an established Guam journalist, longs to repair a damaged relationship with her American husband. Ella, a hotel housekeeper for almost 20 years, finds means of sending her 88-year old mother to the Philippines with the uncertainty of coming back. As the island of Guam celebrates this classic American holiday when people count their blessings and give thanks, the lives of the three Filipina immigrants intersect and find themselves at a tug-o-war of sacrifice and significance where they must find their home or must they find it somewhere else.

Circus hijinks surround the barangay of Sta. Maria in the midst of an international murder sensation. Swanie, Sta. Maria’s barangay chair and a distant relative of the killer, tries to gain political points by staging a wake for the criminal-turned-celebrity. Meanwhile in faraway Manila, Joanna, Swanie’s runaway son, navigates his way through labyrinthine bureaucracy, to give a neighbor a proper burial. With these two unrelated deaths, estranged mother and son each bury the dead long shelved in their hearts. Amidst these unspoken family burials, the neighborhoods’ penchant for funeral fiestas, gossip and secrets, bizarre social events and the sheer mix of scandal and inebriation complete the picture of dying the Pinoy way.

On a particularly nondescript weekend afternoon, Edison must deal with his exasperated mother, who is bearing down on him like a force of nature; the looming deadline of a paper on the philosophical writings of Immanuel Kant; and a persistent, insidious force that aims to destroy the tranquility of his existence.

100 years after the defeat of the local troops under Gen. Miguel Malvar in the Philippine-American War, the people of a Batangueño town would have lost its character typified by the Tagalog term "barako", meaning brave or courageous. Much worse, they have become subservient to their corrupt leaders who have been taking advantage of their ignorance and poverty. But they are slowly swayed to a new liberal direction by a small coffee club called "barakuhan" whose organizers see in it a reawakening of their native courage.

Jerry is a wide-awake tourist guide in Cebu who knows all the angles, and who has supported his divorced mother and younger brother and sister since their musician father deserted the family for a younger woman. Jerry guides tour buses, taking the mostly Japanese tourists boating, golfing and to strip shows. Jerry also acts as a pimp, and even prostitutes himself. As the breadwinner he makes sacrifices for his family but wields control over his siblings and mother in return

An ugly ducking attempts to become desirable.

LV and her family make their living by operating an illegal off track betting outlet. But things haven't been going well for them lately, and the future is uncertain with Sta. Ana Park closing down.

It's the story of a young woman, whose husband, is arrested by the soldiers of a Japanese garrison, on the suspicion that he is a guerilla. Dizon pleads her case to the garrison's commander, who sympathizes and lets Yllana go; when the commander's wife dies and leaves their son motherless, Dizon, is hired to feed the baby from her own breast.

Due to a delayed flight a group of German flight passengers have to wait in the hall of the airport of Manila. The crowd is quite mixed, ranging from an cultivated east German teacher couple up to sleazy sex tourists. As the waiting prolongs, more and more aggressions and long repressed behaviors shed their way to the surface.

Ang Paglilitis ni Andres Bonifacio is the untold story of the trial of Andres Bonifacio under the Revolutionary Government of Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo. Two leaders, Andres Bonifacio, Supremo of the Katipuneros, and Emilio Aguinaldo, president of the Revolutionary Government, made their way to fight for freedom for the Filipinos against the dominant rule, fought for a cause and for a reason to be one nation. Yet only one should rule. This was the start of Philippine politics. Ang Paglilitis ni Andres Bonifacio is a film documentation of Philippine history put to screen and megged by Mario O’Hara. And now, let the people be the judge whether Andres Bonifacio is guilty or not guilty of treason

Desiree and Gilbert are in love but no one seems to believe it. Desiree's friends thinks Gilbert is just using her. Gilbert is studying to become a doctor and Desiree is financing his tuition fee and daily expenses. Gilbert's family thinks Desiree is interested in the family fortune. Gilbert is a rich kid but he left home when his girlfriend committed suicide after being insulted by his mother Gracia.

A famous dress designer who adopted the illegitimate daughter of one of her models. The little girl became her only joy after she turned into a recluse when she lost her fiance. Unknown to her that was only the beginning of her troubles with Dina. Dina returned from time to time with threats of blackmail kidnapping and other evil deeds.