In Between Spaces

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.

A young boy comes back from a field trip in the woods with something inside him. His mother must resort to supernatural means to save her son and herself.

Lola Fely lovingly dedicated most of her life to care for her family, she finally decided to pursue her longtime dream to finish Grade 6 at the age of 69. Too old for some, but never too late for Lola Fely who is determined to survive the challenges of studying and adapting to the pre-teen campus life. Other characters include Buboy, the class bully, played by Buboy Villar, and Pinky.

One morning, residents of a rural village are horrified when the sun rises in the West. According to Islamic belief, this phenomenon signals the Apocalypse. As village folk react differently to the situation, a tragedy strikes when one of the residents is raped and her brother brutally murdered as he tries to avenge her. Steep in superstition, the villagers attribute these to the Devil himself.

Mabuti accidentally finds a stash of money that could bring an end to her family’s financial problems: is the solution that simple or is it loaded with complications?

A 12-year old Anita falls in love with the new woman in town; years later, a girlhood crush blossoms during the Fiesta of Santa Clara in Obando, Bulacan.

Tackles the journey of Michelle Orot as a newly hired SPED Teacher and her struggles after knowing that she has seizure disorders - an epilepsy.

Set in the world of high-stakes cockfighting, gamblers place their money and lives on the line.

A story of the different false possibilities created by an "intoxicating substance" induced in someone’s life. It's a narrative that completely breaks the moral compass and defies the rules of society. The three characters in the film discover a fiction that transcends moral boundaries.

The story is about a teenage boy living in the Philippines who is being persuaded by his family to go to the U.S. to live a better life but continues to be caught in a web of bad choices. The plot is close to my heart because it tells the story of so many of my friends and family living there now and the struggles they face with poverty, drugs, and violence.

In a quiet, rural Filipino village, sibling rivalry continues through adulthood for two sisters and finally tears their family apart.

A victim of rape by her brothers, Criselle had not known joy in her life. Her so-called mother abused her and made her work to the bones. Her supposedly loving father failed to defend her. The plot thickens as she discovers the true identity of her mother and the twisted fate she had received. Drowning with revenge, Criselle gives her soul to the devil and instantly becomes possessed by it. She plots to kill her entire family and end the torment that had beset her. I

A security guard jumps to the other side of the fence and turns to crime when his meager pay is not enough to keep his wife and children by his side. How far will he go to secure his future and what will he lose/gain on the way?

A young woman running away from a volatile relationship ends up in a small beach resort where it seems everyone is falling in and out of love.

An environmentally conscious movie about Butanding, or whale shark.

Seven stories with no connection at all but with a common universal theme of doing good deeds and making the right decision.