When the Apocalypse Is Over: New Independent Philippine Cinema
13 Episodes
These stylistically radical, bracingly contemporary films offer new ways of seeing Philippine myths, pasts, presents, and futures. Making innovative use of digital technologies, extreme color grading, and unexpected aspect ratios, a new generation of young Philippine filmmakers explodes genre conventions to imagine stories of absurd, alienating worlds and lonely characters longing for something or someone outside the limited reach of the frame. Taken together, these alternate cinematic dimensions form an exciting body of work that nods to the past while feeling startlingly, ecstatically new.
Programmed by Aaron Hunt
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1:23:27Episode 1
Fisting: Never Tear Us Apart
Episode 1
Directed by Whammy Alcazaren • 2018 • Philippines
Starring Ricky Davao, Meryll Soriano, Jasmine Curtis-SmithShot entirely on a vertically oriented iPhone, this daring, provocative feature from boundary-pushing auteur Whammy Alcazaren is an intimate immersion into the secret inner worlds of an a...
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Cleaners
Episode 2
Directed by Glenn Barit • 2019 • Philippines
Starring Ianna Taguinod, Leomar Baloran, Julian NaragAt a Catholic high school in the Philippine city of Tuguegarao, a rambunctious batch of students rebel against all expectations to be clean: a germaphobe is tested by a bout of uncontrollable diarr...
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1:13:37Episode 3
For My Alien Friend
Episode 3
Directed by Jet Leyco • 2019 • Philippines
A lone stranger broadcasts fragments of life he has witnessed on Earth to an extraterrestrial friend, hoping to make a connection across space and time and to communicate the human experience to other beings. Spanning the cosmic and the comical, Jet Ley...
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Dikit
Episode 5
Directed by Gabriela Serrano • 2021 • Philippines
Starring Mariana Serrano, Mika Zarcal, Jarrett Cross PintoA young woman with a monstrous secret desperately longs for a different body. When the new couple in town moves in next door, she sees her chance to finally get one.
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20:06Episode 6
i get so sad sometimes
Episode 6
Directed by Trishtan Perez • 2021 • Philippines
Starring JC Santiago, Karl Louie Caminade, Russ LigtasIn the small town of Pagadian in the Philippines, a gay teenager eagerly waits for a mature man to finally reveal his face after developing an anonymous sexual relationship with him online.
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14:07Episode 7
It’s Raining Frogs Outside
Episode 7
Directed by Maria Estela Paiso • 2021 • Philippines
Starring Alyana CabralAs the apocalypse looms, a young Filipino woman is forced to return to her childhood home in the province of Zambales. There, as frogs rain down from the sky, she confronts traumatic memories that condense into a surreal ...
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08:48Episode 8
Somewhere a Destination
Episode 8
Directed by Celeste Lapida • 2021 • Philippines
Starring Celeste Lapida“ . . . people who move away from the gender they were assigned at birth [. . .] want to strike out toward some new location, some space not yet clearly defined or concretely occupied; [. . .] the movement across a socially ...
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16:26Episode 9
Bold Eagle
Episode 9
Directed by Whammy Alcazaren • 2022 • Philippines
Starring Ricky Davao, Gio Gahol, luckymaybe1923Trapped at home with his talking cat, a man seeks refuge in the strong arms of strange men as together they venture deep down into the nether regions of the Internet in search of true happiness. Cau...
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18:07Episode 10
The Gossips of Cicadidae
Episode 10
Directed by Vahn Leinard Pascual • 2022 • Philippines
Starring Rolando Inocencio, AJ Benoza, Alleison DimatulacDrawing on silent-film aesthetics from a bygone era, this mesmerizing monochrome short tells a story of forbidden love. A young boy struggles with feeling trapped in his inherited role...
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19:02Episode 11
the river that never ends
Episode 11
Directed by JT Trinidad • 2022 • Philippines
Starring Emerald Romero, Hesus Deligero, Ron GoAlong a river undergoing major development, Baby, a middle-aged trans woman, shuttles between her job as a companion-for-hire for strangers and her duty to her father. As the people around Baby start to ...
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22:57Episode 12
Rocks in a Windless Wadi
Episode 12
Directed by EJ Gagui • 2022 • Philippines
Three men describe their long-buried childhood traumas as mysterious, ghostly images shot around a wadi flicker before our eyes.
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Hito
Episode 13
Directed by Stephen Lopez • 2023 • Philippines
Starring Kyrie Allison Samodio, Jun Jun Quintana, Bor OcampoBetween nuclear reactors and military curfews, fourteen-year-old Jani lives in a dystopian world oppressively devoid of empathy. Together, she and her slippery new friend Kiefer the talkin...