ALL FILM & TV FEATURES
In the Middle of Things: Lighting the Fires of Regional Cinema, One Grassroots Initiative at a Time
One thing I’ve learned is that initiatives like Keith Deligero’s In the Middle of Things do not have to be confined to one place. They can exist across islands, cities, and provinces throughout the archipelago. One initiative lights a small flame somewhere; another carries it somewhere else. Over time, these scattered flames begin to form something larger: a collective effort to nurture regional cinema, strengthen local filmmaking communities, and ultimately bring the stories of our islands to wider audiences.
The Birds Are Watching in Ilaya Ilaya Studios’ Upcoming Found-Footage Horror Film ‘Birdsong’
Newly launched production house Ilaya-Ilaya Studios taps into real and supernatural fears in the upcoming found-footage horror film ‘Birdsong’ from director Pam Miras, producers Antoinette Jadaone and Irene Emma Villamor, writer Glenn Barit, and Kaila Estrada in her first lead role
Everyone Should Be A Jackass
After 26 years of broken bones and laughing through tears, they still haven’t learned their lesson. But I think I have an idea or two on what it all means. Move aside Megan Thee Stallion, we’re having a Jackass Girl Summer.
At the Intersection, Again: On ‘Dagitab’ and Where Our Lives Meet
Giancarlo Abrahan’s ‘Dagitab’ follows Jimmy (Nonie Buencamino) and Issey (Eula Valdez) as familiarity and dissatisfaction draw them toward lives beyond what they already know.
The Films That Found Me
A Gen Z cinephile from Davao on discovering Philippine cinema beyond the capital.
EXIT: How a YouTube Channel Is Reopening Doors For Local Indies
At its heart, the EXIT channel is an attempt to answer one persistent question that follows every independent film screening: "Asa naman ni matan-aw ang salida?" (Where can we watch the film now?).
The Architecture of Film Narrative: Constructing Meaning from Chaos
In films like ‘Mulholland Drive’, ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’, and ‘Himala’, fragmentation shapes how time, identity, and space are experienced.
Persist, However Fleeting: Time, Memory, and Dreams in Bi Gan's Cinema
For the Chinese auteur Bi Gan, such existential unease surfaces in a game of ping pong, in the rustle of train wheels against the tracks, in dilapidated buildings, or in his hometown of Kaili.
‘Chungking Express’ or Other Ways of Seeing Dreams
If Wong Kar-wai’s films collectively share a grammar then ‘Chungking Express’ may be where that language speaks most freely. Like most of his titles, its logic is not governed by realism but by emotional proximity: pillow cases get renewed without explanation, strangers enter private spaces, and affection is expressed through invisible, almost imperceptible acts. In WKW's universe, longing rearranges reality just enough to make narrow spaces for connection.
Where Love and Intimacy Live Between Languages in ‘Gitling’
At its core, Gitling interrogates how intimacy is shaped through language; not only the words people speak, but the effort it takes to meet someone across differences.
Riding the Wrong Train to the Right Station: How ‘The Lunchbox’ Redefines Love Beyond Permanence
In ‘The Lunchbox’, a misdelivered meal becomes a story about love that transforms without lasting. Love and meaning don’t need permanence to matter because sometimes the “wrong train” still brings you where you need to go.
The One with Why We Can’t Stop Watching Sitcoms
I got to visit the FRIENDS Experience: The One in Manila recently. The exhibit was fun despite the long lines, but it also got me thinking about other people's safety blankets: sitcoms.
This Land is Mined: A Film Program
Indigenous People (IP) communities have long found themselves at the epicenter of development aggression and armed conflict. This virtual program aims to shed light on the ongoing displacement of IP communities and their identities.
In the Green House Cinema, Cinephilia Blooms Amid the City’s Noise
Tucked behind a milky-white picket fence in Anda, Rizal Street, one can find the Green House Cinema, a home-turned-cinema that has become a gathering place for filmmakers and storytellers in Davao City. What began as a small experiment has become a blooming creative ecosystem.
The Truth is Out There (And So is My Burnout): How Watching ‘The X-Files’ Became My Solace
It was the summer of 2024 when I discovered ‘The X-Files’ while I (dreadfully) worked from home. While wrestling with work anxieties, watching the fan-favorite sci-fi series became my solace.
Reimaginations and Contradictions of Imagined Memories: A Film Program
The virtual film program ‘Reimaginations and Contradictions of Imagined Memories’ aims to showcase how short films can serve as forms of imagined memory from the youth. Reimaginations of the past that show the same historical atrocities and even ideals of the Marcosian myths that were perpetuated during those times, to the contradictions of the contemporary present that kept challenging the masses themselves, to the current social realities as an effect of these Marcosian myths.
The Silences of ‘Heneral Luna’
Ten years later ‘Heneral Luna’s’ call for a strongman to unite the country has aged poorly. What’s left is the film’s ahistorical mythmaking, a narrative that reinforces the idea that Philippine history is reducible to Tagalog history.
When Third Space Becomes an Escape in ‘At Least We Had This Moment’
Society traps us in an endless loop of home and work. For two lost souls in ‘At Least We Had This Moment,’ finding a third space is resistance.
‘Agapito’ and a Duckpin Alley’s Journey From Bulacan to Beyond
From its humble beginnings in Bulacan to its journey to Cannes and now Toronto, ‘Agapito’ stands not necessarily as a banner for all Filipino stories, but as one story tied to a brother, a father, and a community that keeps a humble duckpin alley alive.
What’s After Drag? Precious Paula Nicole’s Newfound Beat in ‘Lip Sync Assassin’
Three years after their monumental ‘Drag Race Philippines Season 1’ win, Precious Paula Nicole struts down the bedazzled path of drag excellence to full-fledged film royalty in the killer (quite literally) flick Lip Sync Assassin.