26 Films you shouldn’t miss at the 4th Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Part 1)

By Asian Film Festival on November 23, 2020 • ( Leave a comment )

These are twenty-six films you shouldn’t miss at the 4th Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP), which is taking place online until December 13th, 2020.

About the festival:
The Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP) is a week-long celebration of Philippine Cinema where new quality genre Filipino films are screened for one (1) week in all regular cinemas nationwide. No foreign film will be screened during PPP except in specialty cinemas to give the opportunity for the whole country to celebrate its own local films. This event is organized by the Film Development Council of the Philippines in partnership with the National Cinema Association of the Philippines.

How to watch the films:
1) Go to https://fdcpchannel.ph
2) Register and log-in.
3) For watching the Feature Films you will need to pay for a Subscription. You can buy a Daily Pass valid for 24 hours only (PHP 99), Half Run Pass valid for 12 days only (PHP 299) or a Premium Pass for PHP 599 that will give you access to all the films. Short Films are FREE to watch.
4) After the payment has been accepted you will have access to the film/s BUT only on the days the film is scheduled.
5) Log in 10 min before the film schedule time.
6) Enjoy the film.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: The festival is not running on Video On Demand (VOD) meaning you CAN’T STREAM the films when you want. The festival runs on LIVE STREAMING. You will need to follow the schedule to watch the film you want. This is VERY annoying we know but it’s the festival’s rules. So please log in at least 10 minutes before the movie starts to get access to the screenings. There are NO REFUNDS of any means. Also remember that feature films are available for people living in the Philippines. We strongly advice to read the Q&A of the festival at https://fdcpchannel.ph/faqs

**Baboy Halas** (Wailing in the Forest) by Bagane Fiola – Philippines | 2016 – 105 minutes

An indigenous family, one of the last forest people of old, copes with the unusual changes in their ancient environment, pressured by the imposing lifestyle and customs of the tribes on the plains. (PPP 2020)

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**Batch 81** by Mike De Leon – Philippines | 1982 – 108 minutes

The lives of seven neophytes as they strive to enter a Greek letter fraternity through a difficult hazing process. The entire experience is seen through the eyes of Sid Lucero, one of the neophytes. The restoration of Batch ’81 was made possible using the 35mm original camera negative, a positive print and the original sound negative from the Asian Film Archive Collection, preserved since 2005. This was the first restoration of a Filipino film undertaken by the Asian Film Archive. (PPP 2020)

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**Billie & Emma** by Samantha Lee – Philippines | 2018 – 107 minutes

Set in the mid-90’s, the film tells the story of Billie, a troublemaker from the big city, who finds herself exiled to San Isidro to live with her spinster aunt who is also the town’s religion teacher. Determined to change her ways and get through the last year of high school without incident, Billie hides herself from the world until she meets Emma, the ambitious, star student who coaxes Billie out of her shell. They soon fall in love but things get complicated when Emma finds out that she’s pregnant. Together, they explore the fleeting nature of love and life on this journey of growth, laughter and music. (PPP 2020)

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**Carving Thy Faith** (Pag-ukit sa Paniniwala) by Hiyas Baldemor Bagabaldo – Philippines | 2019 – 75 minutes

A five-year visual ethnography of traditional yet practical orchestration of Semana Santa (Holy Week) in a small town where religious woodcarving is the livelihood. An experiential film on neocolonial Philippines’ interpretation of Saints and Gods through many forms of rituals and iconography, exposing wood as raw material that undergoes labour production processes before becoming an object of devotion. (PPP 2020)

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**Cleaners** by Glenn Barit – Philippines | 2019 – 78 minutes

Cleaners is an absurd coming-of-age anthology film about high school students who each struggle with the standards and pressures of being pure, proper and clean while also discovering that the world they are boxed in is dirty and superficial to begin with. Imagine a film with 30,000 frames printed, photocopied, colored with highlighters, before being assembled back again digitally. A nostalgic trip to simpler days of self-discovery and social awakening. (PPP 2020)

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**Come on, Irene** by Keisuke Yoshida – Japan | 2018 – 137 minutes

42-year old loser Iwao Shishido screws up his one shot at love, and leaves home to go to the Philippines. He uses the 3 million yen he saved up over the years to join a tour and find a bride. After meeting with 30 local women one after another, he goes into a panic and finally picks one randomly. The girl he picks is a Filipino named Irene, who was born in a poor fishing village. Two weeks after Iwao’s sudden departure, he comes back to find his father Genzo dead, and his family in the middle of the funeral. The young Irene is revealed to a crowd of murmuring mourners. When Tsuru hears that her only son, who’s gone his entire life without ever being in love, has married a girl she’s never met, she becomes infuriated. She grabs the family’s hunting rifle and points its gleaming barrel at Irene. (PPP 2020)

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**Dekada ’70** by Chito S. Roño – Philippines | 2002 – 199 minutes

Despite their distinct differences, the Bartolomes are struggling to keep their family intact during the dark times of Martial Law. Amanda (Vilma Santos) is a mother of five children who is also trying to find her identity and purpose as a wife, a mother, and a woman. Julian (Christopher de Leon), Amanda’s conventional and domineering husband, insists that Amanda observe her place as a woman in their family of boys. Jules (Piolo Pascual) is Amanda’s eldest son who is in constant hiding for taking part in the militant struggle against the government. Eman (Marvin Agustin), on the other hand, is Amanda’s quiet son who covertly writes against the current administration. The playful Gani (Carlos Agassi), meanwhile, enlists with the US military. And Jason (Danilo Barrios), Amanda’s adventurous son, is caught by corrupt police which leads to tragic consequences. (PPP 2020)

**Edward** by Thop Nazareno – Philippines | 2019 – 82 minutes

A public hospital serves as a witness to a young boy’s rite of passage when he is stuck to take care of his ailing father. Caught in a place where life itself is in limbo, the boy treats the hospital as his playground, not knowing that it will be his source of liberation in the end, especially when he has to juggle the idea of puppy love versus the idea of familial love. Edward, Thop Nazareno’s sophomore coming of age feature, is a testament to a teenager finding self-actualization in the reality of a Philippine public hospital setting. (PPP 2020)

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**Forbidden Memory** by Teng Mangansakan – Philippines | 2016 – 77 minutes

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. (PPP 2020)

**God Bliss Our home** by Nawruz Paguidopon – Philippines | 2017 – 74 minutes

For 10 years, Nawruz has lived in BLISS, a former government housing project that has now become a shelter for local migrants, city workers, and university students. Originally from Mindanao, Philippines, he has decided to stay in Manila not only for work opportunities but also for the comfort and freedom of urban living. But staying in Manila isn’t easy — and it isn’t cheap either. He accepts freelance design and animation work, sells beauty products, joins a community lending scheme, and thinks of renting a whole flat in BLISS and lease its rooms to others to earn and save money. One day, his mother calls and asks him to come home. She is worried about his financial troubles and offers to help. Reluctantly, he agrees, and uses this opportunity to connect again with his family, especially with his mother whose values have always been old-fashioned. God Bliss Our Home is Nawruz’s self-portrait documenting his struggles to survive in Manila, his passion to pursue his dreams and continue making films, and his efforts to position himself in the vast socioeconomic and political sphere of a fast-paced city. But it is also his personal letter to his mother, an attempt to make her understand his sexuality and changing priorities in life. (PPP 2020)

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**Gusto Kita with** All my hypothalamus by Dwein Baltazar – Philippines | 2018 – 105 minutes

It is not the heart, but the hypothalamus that dictates whom we love. And in the navel of Manila, on the streets of Avenida, four men fall in love with one woman, Aileen. Each with a different reason: provincial boy Caloy, wants a wife; widower Lando, desires a whore; college student Alex, finds a soulmate; and Obeng the thief, longs for a companion. Each may be different, but one thing is certainly true—all of these men love Aileen with all their hypothalamus. (PPP 2020)

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**Lugta Ke Tamama** (Land From God) by Kevin Piamonte – Philippines | 2018 – 62 minutes

The tribal chieftain, Delsa Justo, says that they have been living in the island of Boracay even before the time of war. When tourists started coming, greed started to settle in the island and the Indigenous People (Aetas or locally called Ati) of Boracay were pushed to the back of the island. Now these Indigenous People are occupying the smallest ancestral domain in the world as they continue to struggle for their existence and for their education. They struggle to be educated with the hopes that education will give them a better life. However, their education is alsp dependent on their ancestral domain because for Indigenous People their community and their environment is their learning space. Due to over-developments in the island, these Indigenous People are now being threatened of being banished from the island forever.

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**Miss Bulalacao** by Ara Chawdhury – Philippines | 2015 – 90 minutes

Miss Bulalacao is about a young drag queen, Dodong, who joins a barangay gay pageant to gain acceptance in his father’s community. He is instead met with hostility from his father, who chases him to a jungle, where he sobs to a lone bright star. What follows is the strangest night in his entire life, and an even stranger 9 months when he realizes he’s pregnant. With only his stepmother, Lisa, as support, Dodong deals with ridicule from a barangay who does not believe him—until the rumors becomes a headline in a tabloid, “BAKLA, INA NG DIOS!” (PPP 2020)

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