This is a banner for a review of the film Quezon. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘Quezon’ Movie Review: Jerrold Tarog Reckons Yet Again With the Idea of a Great Man in the Final Installment to His Deconstructionist Hero Trilogy

Filipino filmmaker Jerrold Tarog’s historical biopic trilogy, which began a decade ago, may just have run its course with Quezon, notwithstanding the latest installment’s prescient coda. The movie first played in Philippine theaters in October last year and screened in the Limelight program of the 2026 International Film Festival Rotterdam, …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of the documentary La Belle Annee. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘La Belle Année’ Documentary Review: A Bloated Remembering of Teenage Desires

Cinema works as a personal diary for filmmakers. The camera as an instrument substitutes the pen, words shift to images, and the stories build upon a different logic. Similar to the process of writing in a journal, there is a process involved in the act of storytelling. The written story …

Read more

This is a banner for an interview with Carl Joseph Papa, director of 58th. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

Interview: Director Carl Joseph Papa on the Film ‘58th’

Filipino filmmaker Carl Joseph Papa’s latest film 58th is a gripping animated docudrama on the infamous 2009 Maguindanao massacre, now known as the single deadliest attack on journalists in recorded history. Recently screened in the Harbour programme of the 2026 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where the director’s critically acclaimed Iti …

Read more

This is a banner for a review of 58th. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.

‘58TH’ Movie Review: Rotoscoped Carnage

There is a small rural enclave in southern Philippines called Sitio Masalay, whose fields were turned into a horrific site of carnage one fateful day in November 2009, summarily taking 58 innocent lives. In the aftermath, only 57 bodies were found, and one remains missing. Director Carl Joseph Papa presciently …

Read more