The Recycled Spirits of Roel Cabato(2017)

Curiosity, Adventure and Love(tl)

One woman’s journey through a century of love, war and discovery. Curiosity, Adventure & Love is a the story of a woman raised by fate to go boldly where few young women of her time and upbringing would go, into the arms of chance and life. A young American woman leaves her country and all security behind, to begin an adventure in the Philippines that would witness the birth of a nation, a cruel war and Occupation and reconstruction. Jessie is a striking personality, somewhere between Scarlett O’Hara and Amelia Earhart, who knew no boundaries and flew far ahead of her times, without regard to sex or society. Her story of a century well-lived is both rich and one that should restore our faith in our own humanity.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse(en)

A chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.

The Green Guerillas: The Fight For The Philippines Rain Forest(en)

Filmed in a village of the indigenous Mandaya people, located in a mountainous area of southeastern Mindanao, the country's second largest island, the documentary portrays the struggle of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army, for the rights of indigenous Filipino peoples and the environment, which are constantly under threat from landowners, large logging companies and agribusiness.

The Guerilla is a Poet(en)

The tale of an activist’s journey during the turbulent years of Martial Law, until his capture in the mountains and the dark, nine years of imprisonment that followed, leading to his birth as a poet.

People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam Rose(tl)

The unfinished movie of the late Celso Ad Castillo now a Cinema One Originals documentary film.

Piding(tl)

Once upon a time, you were born. In the Philippines, there was no science education when you were a child. When they began to offer it in your adulthood, you leapt at the chance and studied harder than everyone else. You learned of kingdoms and species and genes and atoms. Science helped you to see the bigger world beyond. You studied so well, an American university paid you to keep studying with them, so you left. You gained mastery over the evolution of birds there, but you missed home the whole time. You lost your first wife and son to Science. So with degree in hand, you went back to your people. You found that they had burned their forests, and had exploded their seas. So you gave a new bird to your people; because, now you knew how to use it to save them. This was the piding. And the rest is the story of Oliver Carlos.

Forbidden Memory(en)

Forbidden Memory summons remembrances and memories of the fateful days in September 1974 when about 1,500 men from Malisbong and neighboring villages in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat were killed while 3,000 women and children were forcibly taken to naval boats stationed nearby where they encountered unspeakable horror. For 40 years, the survivors lived in relative silence. Now they tell their stories.

Himala Ngayon(tl)

A 2012 documentary about the making and the legacy of the 1982 drama masterpiece directed by Ishmael Bernal that ended up being one of the greatest Asian films of all time. The revelations about the theory of "Who killed Elsa?" will be answered and also, the impact of the film to the Filipino culture and society.

YAYA(en)

YAYA is a story about a filmmaker who explores the complex relationship between his family and the domestic worker who spent decades away from her family in the Philippines to raise his. This documentary is a tribute to all the domestic workers in Hong Kong, who has served as the backbone of Hong Kong's economy by unleashing a substantial female workforce into the economy and taken care of so many lives with love and care. You are all heroes in the hearts of the Hong Kong people. - Justin Cheung, the director

Appointment at Mount Manunggal(en)

This documentary paints the life of former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957), from being a simple mechanic, a wartime guerilla leader, and as president of the Philippines, leading up to his death in a plane crash in Mount Manunggal, Cebu.

Sunday Beauty Queen(tl)

Beneath Hong Kong's glittering facade, Filipina domestic helpers work in relative anonymity and for near-slave wages. In a beauty pageant like no other, five helpers give themselves makeovers for a day and gleefully reclaim their dignity.

Appointment in Tokyo(en)

Produced by the Army Pictorial Service, Signal Corps, with the cooperation of the Army Air Forces and the United States Navy, and released by Warner Bros. for the War Activities Committee shortly after the surrender of Japan. Follow General Douglas MacArthur and his men from their exile from the Philippines in early 1942, through the signing of the instrument of surrender on the USS Missouri on September 1, 1945. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Beyond the Block(tl)

Documentary about the growth of street dancing in the Philippines

Pagrara Sang Patipuron(tl)

Filmed in the mountains of Barotac Viejo, Iloilo, Pagrara Sang Patipuron revolves around a group of indigenous women who work as weavers. This documentary follows their creative process and how they maintain their place in an increasingly modern world.

Motherland(en)

The planet’s busiest maternity hospital is located in one of its poorest and most populous countries: the Philippines. There, poor women face devastating consequences as their country struggles with reproductive health policy and the politics of conservative Catholic ideologies.

Bontok, Rapeless(tl)

Two Filipina victims of sexual abuse search the truth behind the finding of a renowned anthropologist: that merely a few generations ago, the Bontok Igorot lived in what seems an unthinkable utopia—a rape-less society.

Wild Window: Bejeweled Fishes(es)

Bejeweled Fishes captures the spectacular beauty of the myriad fishes inhabiting coral reefs of the Tropical and Eastern Pacific. This Wild Window was captured in the Maldives Islands, Fiji, the Philippines, Mexico, California, and Indonesia.

Kasama Kang Tumanda(tl)

A filmmaker follows her grandparents’ daily life after her chain-smoker and alcoholic grandmother is forced to stop drinking beer for a month.

Hors les murs(fr)

The Money Lenders(en)

Critical investigation of The World Bank and IMF. Too hot for PBS, but prime time TV everywhere else. Do the World Bank and IMF make the poor even poorer? Are the Bank and IMF democratic institutions? Why do people demonstrate against the Bank and IMF? For the first time, a documentary global investigation of major criticisms of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two of the most powerful financial institutions in the world. Five country case studies are presented, each concentrating on a different aspect of critics' charges: 1. Bolivia: Debt, Drugs and Democracy 2. Ghana: The Model of Success 3. Brazil: Debt, Damage and Politics 4. Thailand: Dams and Dislocation 5. Philippines: The Debt Fighters. The charges, including those related to structural adjustment, are controversial and provocative. Some go to the heart of the power and policies of these institutions.