March 5 to 7, TARC Auditorium, UST

Child from China

Runtime: 26 minutes

Language: English

Director: Aurora Santiago

This documentary tells the story of an American couple adopting Chinese children who are victims of China’s one-child policy. But more to this is the dramatic story of the couple’s quest and hope of having a child truly their own to complete their dream of a family.

Foster Child (Opening Film)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Brillante Mendoza

Hired by a local Foster Care facility to provide temporary care and shelter for abandoned babies, Thelma (Cherry Pie Picache) earns her living as a surrogate mother to abandoned children who are waiting for adoption. Despite the fact that her family lives in abject poverty, Thelma receives a fair amount of money and fulfillment until she encounters the three-year-old Jon-Jon. As the kind-hearted foster parent prepares to turn the child over to his adoptive American parents, Thelma undergoes a bittersweet transition between acceptance and loss.

Five People You Meet in Heaven

Runtime: 160 minutes

Language: English

Director: Richard Attenborough

On his 83rd birthday, Eddie (Voight), a war vet and a maintenance worker at the Ruby Pier amusement park, dies while trying to save a girl who is sitting under a falling ride. When he awakens in the afterlife, he encounters five people with ties to his corporeal existence that will help him understand the meaning of his life.

Kambas ng Lipunan

Runtime: 20 mins

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Joey Velasco

Businessman turned painter presents the stories behind the children of “Hapag ng Pag-asa,” a Joey Velasco reinvention of the last supper. Velasco then asks questions on the meaning of his life after meeting these kids.

Endo

Runtime: 75 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Jade Castro

Endo is short for ‘end of contract’, or what temporary workers call their last day of work until the next job comes along. Endo depicts a nation where money, dreams and love are elusive.The movie tells about the story of Leo (Jason Abalos) who is stereotypically used to the temporary. Typical of many young Filipinos, he earns a living for himself and his family by hopping from one contractual job to the next. His relationships with women are similarly fleeting. When he meets the spirited dreamer Tanya (Ina Feleo), he is suddenly faced by the promise of a better future, although he seems overwhelmed about it.

Indie film director

Estropa

Runtime: 14 minutes

Language: Filipino

Director: Sheryl Rose Andres & Michael Galang

This documentary takes a peek into life by the railways in Tondo, Manila with special focus on the few who take an interest in singing rap songs that they themselves composed from their own personal experiences. In each song is a story of love, dreams, and of failures that reflect the stark truths of their lives by the railways.

*Estropa may contain some offensive language and scenes, which are used to portray actual situations hounding places similar to the railways in Tondo.

Tribu

Runtime: 93 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Jim Libiran

In the darker side of Manila-by-night, “tribes” of youthful gangsters roam the streets in search of quick fixes and precarious thrills. World-weary Tondo throbs to the beat of of hiphop and freestyle gangsta rap, and to the scents and sensations of drugs and sex and violence. We witness this crepuscular underworld through the eyes of ten-year-old Ebet. We follow him as he witnesses the deadly lives of teen age gang members in Tondo and the events that lead to their explosive confrontation.

*Tribu may contain some offensive language and scenes, which are used to portray actual situations in which “gangs” are involved.

Shadowlands

Runtime: 126 minutes

Language: English

Set in England in 1952, Shadowlands is the tender and deeply moving true story of the love affair between C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) and Joy Gresham (Debrah Winger). Lewis, a highly acclaimed writer (Narnia chronicles) lived a quiet and ordered life as professor of English Literature at Magdalen College of Oxford University. This solitude is shattered by the arrival of the outgoing American divorcee, Joy Gresham, who walks into his life with her young son Douglas (Joseph Mazzello). A deep friendship begins, which turns into love when Joy is admitted into hospital with advanced bone cancer. Faced with the possibility of her death, Lewis allows himself for the first time in his life to be open to the joy of love even if it entails vulnerability and the pain of loss.

Ambulancia

Runtime: 15 minutes

Language: Filipino

Director: Richard Legaspi

It is a superstition among ambulance drivers that to run over an animal while hurrying to save a dying passenger is good luck. But is it enough to put stock in superstition when you find yourself in the middle of a crisis? What if that belief puts you, or someone dear, in grave danger?

Trabaho

Runtime: 90 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Ned Trespeces

Trabaho of Ned Trespeces revolves around four job interviewees stuck with each other inside a room, waiting for the big announcement on who gets the managerial position they are applying for. Fighting tooth and nail for the job are Doming, who badly needs the money from the job to augment the shoestring budget of his family in the province; the brawny, rich Joaquin, who wants to earn enough money for night-outs with club girls; Carmen, an ex-junkie who wants to redeem her self-worth; and stiff, pompous Jervis. The movie showed the desperation of Filipino job-seekers. And as in the film’s ending, most Filipinos end up not having the job at all.

Anino

Runtime: 75 minutes

Language: Filipino

Director: Isiah Reyes

The film Anino from UST Nursing revolves on the theme of conscience and forgiveness.

Tunay na Buhay

Runtime: 18 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Jasper Chavez Zarsuela

Witness the life of Jessica, who at a very young age, is made to bear the yoke of poverty. To her little eyes and innocent mind, she already sees her current life as something different from the way a human being should really live.

Lababo

Runtime: 30 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Seymour Barros Sanchez

A creative narrative on the appalling events hounding the lives of Filipinas in Olongapo after the entry of American soldiers in the country.

China Cry

Runtime: 103 minutes

Language: English

Director: James Collier

Adopted by a prominent family in Shanghai in 1941, little Sung Neng Yee (Nora Lam) is treated like a princess until the bombs drop, and the Japanese seize her house. After the defeat of the Japanese, she joins the Communists, believing they are the liberators of China. All goes well until she fallsin love with Lam Cheng Shen from Hong Kong. Communist officials decide to break her of bourgeois tendencies. During the next few years, in which she marries and has three children, she is subjected to excruciating persecution. She calls out to God for salvation. Miracles follow. She bargains for her huisband and daughter’s release to Hong Kong and is sent to hard labor, where she starts agitating for her own release. An intimate love story, saga of courage, and acclaimed inspirational gem.

Pay it Forward

Runtime: 123 minutes

Language: English

Director: Mimi Leder

Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother’s alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward–repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor’s efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him.

Karsel

Runtime: 20 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Rianne Hill Soriano

Due to her mother’s oppressive and overly controlling behaviour, Angela feels suffocated not only inside their palacial home, but also outside it. But when she turns 18, she tries to free herself from the grasp of her own mother.

Tutos

Runtime: 22 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Louise Anne Yamsuan

Tutos highlights a life of a taylor, who manages to sew quality garbs but more importantly his bonds with his only daughter, the taylor’s most precious treasure.

Unconventional Warfare

Runtime: 30 minutes

Language: English

Producers: Anna Isabelle Matutina & Herbert Docena

Self or others? In this documentary, witness a balanced and comprehensive study on the long history of American forces that have come to stop terrorism in Mindanao.

Barako

Runtime: 110 minutes

Language: Filipino

Director: Manolito Sulit

Barako is a haunting account of a young man’s attempt to effect change in his town by gathering his friends around a kapihan called “barakuhan”. In the absence of media, it effectively becomes a venue for the townsfolk to practice their democratic rights, colliding expectedly with the elite’s political and economic interests.

Indie film director

Tirador

Runtime: 86 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Brillante Dante Mendoza

Tirador (Slingshot), a Brilliante Dante Mendoza film, targets chaos and irony of Quiapo. It stars Jiro Manio, Coco Martin, Kristofer King, Nathaniel Lopez, Harold Montano, Nico Taverna, Angela Ruiz, Benjie Filomeno, Arman Reyes with the special participation of Julio Diaz, Simon Ibarra, and Jaclyn Jose. Written by Ralston Joel Jover with Armando Lao as creative consultant, it takes a glimpse into the lives of small-time croonks that operate in the Quiapo area of Manila during Holy week and during the elections.

*Tirador may contain some offensive language and scenes, which are used to present.

Sonda

Runtime: 30 minutes

Language: Filipino

c/o UST College of Nursing

Done by a group of UST Nursing student, the documentary presents a first-hand account of the lives of an abortionist and an abortionee.

Still Life (Closing Film)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Language: Filipino with English subtitles

Director: Katski Flores

An intimate and character driven piece, STILL LIFE is the story of James Masino, a gifted Filipino painter who finds out he is afflicted with a paralyzing disease known as Guillain-Barre syndrome. Faced with a future where he can no longer paint, James leaves his life in the city and goes on a self-imposed exile to paint one final masterpiece. Unable to imagine a life without his art, he plans to kill himself once he finishes this painting. But fate intervenes and derails this grand scheme when James learns that he must share this exile with Emma (Glaiza de Castro), a beautiful and mysterious young girl who at 19 has lived a life much too old for her years.

Indie film director

- Registration: first-come, first-served basis (4 classes per film showing)

- Audiences for each film are requested to be in the venue 15 minutes before the showing starts (for registration)