My Partner

Two high school boys from different social worlds experience romantic feelings for each other. Edmar, a high-performing Filipino student, and Pili, a Native Hawaiian student-athlete, learn that navigating self-growth and teenage love in Hawaiʻi is as complicated as their understanding and love for Hawaiʻi and it’s ever-changing cultural landscape.

TAKBO

‘TAKBO’ is a short experimental film that studies the realities by which young Filipino women live.

Kwentong Barbero

Dado is loving and responsible husband. He also told stories to his loyal customers, Alas and Pablo the secret of his strong relationship with Isay and how to treat women correctly. Eventually, the origin of the saying "Kwentong Barbero" will unfold as Dado shares his love conquest tales.

Bata, Batak Ka Pa

A young boy's innocence is slowly deprived by digital overstimulation and the War on Drugs. Surrounded by a world of vices, his future becomes uncertain when he learns the truth about the people around him.

Kalakalaro

Benok, robbed off his childhood, had to work due to poverty. While his mother spends time on gambling. In his eyes, the world has changed where children work and adults play. Benok finds his way to experience how to become a real kid again.

Luna

VS

Set in 1992, a Filipino kid working at his father’s liquor store seeks community through the arcade game Street Fighter II, but finds himself clashing with a local bully.

The One-Armed Executioner

An Interpol agent is out for revenge against the gangsters that cut off his arm and killed his bride. This tragedy left him deeply depressed, and his battle with depression has to be won first before he can be thoroughly trained in martial arts. After his training, Ortega hunts down his adversaries for a final reckoning.

Before

In a hidden paradise somewhere in the Philippines, two brothers share a simple but sufficient life. Things change when an unexpected visitor brings a new-found attention to their island home. With their idyllic island now on the tourism spotlight, they're now forced to cope with the perils of uncontrolled urbanization.

A Catholic Schoolgirl

A 15-year-old A-student defies the views of her all-girls Catholic school as she confronts her feelings for a school nun.

Little One

A pregnant mother, unsure of how to raise a child, arranges an interview with her two gay dads but fate intervenes when his dad suffers a heart attack. Her dad reflects on their family's history, captured on an old camcorder.

Dumula ng Isa, Dalawa, Tatlo...

A theater group begins their rehearsal on a play about a witness' account of a massacre eventually leading to a confrontation and inner conflicts of the actors portraying their roles.

OTEP The Dreamer

Embarking on a remarkable journey, Otep, a 16-year-old high school boy, faces a challenging narrative of education. It is where resources are as scarce as they are essential: as simple as a paper to write on and a pento write with. Realizing that his brother’s efforts in yielding meager wages will not make the cut in reaching for his dreams, Otep makes it his compass, resolving to carve his own destiny.

Ilo Ilo

During the late 1990s, a busy working-class Singaporean couple hires a Filipino woman as a maid and nanny to their young son.

Tonight, You Will Shine!

A Filipino mother's obsession with her teenaged son becoming famous turns into delusion when she sneaks into his play rehearsal.

Travelers

The diaspora of Filipinos around the globe is driven mostly by the economics of supply and demand. The yearning for something better, stability, and self-validation leads a handful of sojourners from the provinces of the Philippines into the arms of one of its former colonial masters — the USA. But what happens when they finally get what they want? And how? Filmmaker Dennis Empalmado explores the musings of Filipino expatriates and hopeful immigrants in "Naglalakbay" (Travelers).