Dugong Buhay

An ugly ducking attempts to become desirable.

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

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.

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.

The episodically connected lives of four college friends unfold throughout the incipient martial law years, as they struggle to define their sexual and professional desires and how best to attain them.

Two filmmakers try to create a film venturing on the life of Jose Rizal. Before they do that, they try to investigate on the heroism of the Philippine national hero. Of particular focus is his supposed retraction of his views against the Roman Catholic Church during the Spanish regime in the Philippines which he expressed primarily through his two novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. The investigation was done mainly by "interviewing" key individuals in the life of Rizal such as his mother Teodora Alonso, his siblings Paciano, Trinidad, and Narcisa, his love interest and supposed wife Josephine Bracken, and the Jesuit priest who supposedly witnessed Rizal's retraction, Fr. Balaguer. Eventually, the two filmmakers would end up "interviewing" Rizal himself to get to the bottom of the issue.

In a time in the Philippines when the concept of divorce does not exist, a young woman has an affair with a married man. Eventually, they move in together, and that is when the problems start.

A young woman by the name of Dalisay, known as Daly, lives in a small hamlet in the Filipino countryside. She’s an observant, smart and intelligent girl who through an unfortunate accident lost both her father and mother. Her older sister Anne works in a nearby city as a waitress in a restaurant. Her modest income allows for both of them to live sparingly. Every day Daly passes in front of the Sari Sari or general store owned by Nida, a woman that lives not far from her. Nida is an artist, and a solitary never-been-married artist. Daly, hungry for knowledge, often spends time with Nida, the older woman feeding the natural curiosity of the girl. Nida ultimately teaches Daly what higher love is and how the rhythm of nature affects each of our souls.

An edgy film that tackles anxiety/panic attacks triggered by retrograde amnesia in a person desperately seeking and rebuilding a distorted past . He realizes in the end that his future cannot and must not be defined solely by his past. His present is as relevant as his past to his future.

A family is in ruins after the last male member dies. To salvage their future, the matriarch Kadiguia decides to look for a suitable husband for the eligible Tonina to continue the line of martyrs and warriors. Many miles away in the city, Aida secretly works in a hotel after falling victim to an illegal recruiter. She hides this fact from her family who believes that she is in faraway Kuwait working as a nanny.

A story about teacher who went to the mountain to teach (NPA).

Ten years ago, Ginny, an Architecture student, and Marco, a History professor, began a one-of-a-kind and unpredictable love story. In the five years that they were together, they brought out the best in each other, which included Marco’s unrealized dream of becoming a chef. Together, they worked towards their dream of opening up a restaurant, but when Ginny realized her own pursuits were different from his, she rejected his wedding proposal and left the country for a Masters degree in Architecture. At present, Ginny co-owns a one-stop Architecture and Interior Design firm specializing in Restoration. She receives an email from Marco, which was written and sent after their break-up, meant to be read four years later. It makes her feel even more regretful of leaving the love of her life.

The story of Emong, who raised his sister, LenLen, with Down Syndrome, by himself.

Buenos Aires. Exe, 25 years old, has just lost his job and is not looking for another one. His neighbors and friends seem as odd to him as they always do. Online, he meets Alf, a boy from Mozambique who is also bored with his job and who is about to follow Archie, another boy who has run away into the jungle. Through the dense vegetation of the forest, Archie tracks ants back to their nest. One of them wanders off course and comes across Canh, a Filipino, sitting on top of a giant heap of earth and who is about to go back to his strange, beautiful home town, where he too has a miserable job.

A story about a man who grew up as a branded slave when his father lost in gambling, and escapes seeking revenge.

A young man suffering from face blindness and a young woman with a troubled past fall in love.

A Batman takeoff.

Confined to a life that cycles from taking care of his aging, widowed father and phasing through a listless job and day to day routine, Nanding, an introverted bachelor spends his late afternoons at the family farm with a cup of coffee and the fleeting company a young stranger that regularly passes through the property.

Arman and Leo, two young boys and best friends living in the province, share a common past-time: writing down any dreams that they have and discussing them together for no reason at all. On his way to their next meeting, however, Arman realizes that he is being followed by someone who might be haunting the dreams he refuses to reveal.

A story of a woman miner from the mountains of Benguet, who struggles to balance life as a miner and a single parent. “Butas” takes you to a journey in the life of a mother who struggles to make ends meet but is hopeful to provide a better life for her son. Due to poverty, she is forced to work in a foreign country but comes back to the Philippines after her husband dies from a mining accident.