Xeph Suarez

Si Astri Maka Si Tambulah

Xeph Suarez

Usman Agga, Astri Tahari

Astri is a 16-year old transwoman in a relationship with 17-year old Tambulah. Although it’s an unusual sight at the community where they live, nobody bothers them. Subsisting on the coins people throw at them when they perform their traditional dance at the sea. Everything is perfect except that Sama Bajao traditions and a pact made long ago require Astri to marry a woman she hardly knows

Iyo si Malik

Xeph Suarez

Saturnino Ramos Jr., Cassey Bayot

Toto, 8, and Jr, 10, are victims of a recent armed conflict in their city. While playing among the war ruins, they discuss and re-enact their individual war experiences. This story is set in Zamboanga City after the standoff in 2013 between the forces of the Republic of the Philippines and a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front led by Habier Malik.

Dancing the Tides

Xeph Suarez

Astri, a Muslim trans woman, and her boyfriend Tambulah are blissfully living together in the their conservative Sama Badjao community. Their happiness is short-lived when Astri turns 16, her father reminds her that as a “man”, she must honor their tradition by marrying Sitti, the girl promised to Astri when they were born. Astri does not want to dishonor her father and defy their community’s custom. The three do not want this wedding to push through. And so they devise ways to prevent the wedding from happening, all to no avail. In the end, the three have to confront desperate choices they wished they didn’t have to make.