John Torres
2021Ang Ninanais
John Torres
Ciriaco Gibraltar, Tope Grabato
Sarah is a debt collector who lives among the inhabitants of the village of Guimbal on the island of Panay. She wants to find the young man who appeared to her in a dream and goes to the island of Negros. Here, as she interacts with the inhabitants, Sarah continues her search, gathering memories of life and war, dreams, myths, legends, songs and stories that she takes part in and at times revolve around her. She is the daughter of an ancient mermaid, a revolutionary, a primordial element, a virgin who was kidnapped and hidden away from the sunlight. “The film is a retelling of fragments of the American occupation. Dialogue, shot in the Hiligaynon language, is not translated but used as a tonal guide and a tool for narration. Using unscripted scenes shot where the main character was asked to merely interact with the villagers, I discard dialogue and draw meaning from peoples’ faces, voices, and actions, weaving an entirely different story through the use of subtitles and inter-titles.”
Refrains Happen Like Revolutions in a Song
Salvage
Sherad Anthony Sanchez
Jessy Mendiola, JC de Vera
A news team investigating rumors of aswang killings in a remote barrio are attacked by a group of soldiers, forcing them to run for their lives in the deeps of the forest, where more mystery and danger lay in wait.
Salvage
Todo Todo Teros
John Torres
Regiben Romana, Bughaw
Basically an artist is also a terrorist, the protagonist thinks in an unguarded moment. And if he is a terrorist after all, then he might just as well be one. Not an instant product, but an experimental feature in which diary material is brought together to form an intriguing puzzle.
Todo Todo Teros
The Great Cinema Party
Raya Martin
Mark Peranson, Brillante Mendoza
A group of friends, sharing a passion for cinema, assemble in Corregidor, a small island in Manila Bay that has preserved relics from the Pacific War as its foremost attractions. There, they explore the island and retire in a rustic mansion used once to make silent films. Outside the city, the woods and sea become a meeting place for more movie personalities and it all becomes a celebration of what was left behind.
The Great Cinema Party
Lukas Niño
John Torres
Cheeno Dalog Ladera, Edilberto Marcelino
A small town in the Philippines is turned upside down by the arrival of a film crew that has everyone excited. Meanwhile, 13-year-old Lukas finds his own world overturned when he is told that his father is a tikbalang (half horse, half man). His father’s disappearance leaves Lukas to try to unravel the mystery of his own heritage and his own nature.
Lukas the Strange
Mapang-Akit
John Torres
"Mapang-akit" is an offshoot of a documentary project made with an Icelandic filmmaker and uses the outtakes from the Hudas Hudas festival in Antique, where a community bonds over a large effigy of Judas Iscariot during Holy Week. Amidst it is a found story of a man who returns home to his death after pursuing a woman in a neighboring village.
Mapang-Akit
After Nonoy Estarte, a certain Orpheus, and those flowers in Dahilayan that accompanied this other sense they told me about
John Torres
Inspired by an artist's drawings in the South, I saw paintings that depicted the indigenous people's view of the origins of the world. The film is the tale of our nation and basic things: water, plants, body, and their own interaction through time.
After Nonoy Estarte, a certain Orpheus, and those flowers in Dahilayan that accompanied this other sense they told me about
We Still Have to Close Our Eyes
John Torres
John Torres repurposes documentary footage captured from the sets of various Filipino productions (including the likes of Lav Diaz and Erik Matti) into an eerie, elliptical sci-fi narrative about human avatars controlled by apps.
We Still Have to Close Our Eyes
