Pen Medina – MRQE

Kamera obskura

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

The title Kamera Obskura is a Filipino spelling of the latin Camera Obscura which simply means dark room. The films concept adheres to formalist cinema, where the filmmakers thesis is to make a semblance of a vintage film seemingly produced sometime in the late 1920s to early 1930s in the Philippines. The thesis is to conjure up a film from a period that did not really exist in Philippine cinemas historical cultural heritage as we know it, such as a pseudo-expressionist / experimental Filipino cinema of the silent film era. It is a film within a film. The narrative plays with the idea of a retro-futurist world where a prisoner locked away in a dark chamber for over two decades only sees the reality of the world outside through the small hole in his cell, which projects an image of the city on his wall, the phenomenon of the camera obscura.

Mangatyanan

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Laya is a young professional photographer who has drifted away from her family. Her father has fallen ill, but she hasnt once come to visit him at the hospital. Her mother, who left their family when Laya was a child, returns to urge Laya to make amends with her father, but Layas pain goes deeper than her mother suspects. Laya is sent to the provinces to document a ritual of a disappearing indigenous tribe, and there, she inadvertently comes face to face with her own demons as she observes the relationships of the last remaining members of this dying culture.

Tuli

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

The daughter of a circumciser rebels and challenges the status quo when she is asked to take over her father’s job.

Ebolusyon ng isang pamilyang Pilipino

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Depicting the struggles of Filipinos in rural areas under the brutal Marcos regime, a family of poor farmers tries to overcome the challenges brought on by corruption and greed for power spanning1971 to1987.

Lagarista

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Gregory bikes his way through the streets of Manila and transports film reels from one theater to another giving extra service to its patrons. He lives with his grandfather whose dementia worries Gregory, but whose stories of local movies being friends with Rogelio dela Rosa, Carmen Rosales, Leopoldo Salcedo, and other film stars fill him with inspiration.

Muro-ami

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Fredo is a fisherman who has endured more than his share of hardship in life; his wife and child both perished in a boating accident, and today Fredo approaches each trip to the sea with the angry determination of a man out for revenge.

Kahapon, may dalawang bata

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

It is the time of El Niño, a season ruled by superstition and fear. The rain is long in coming, the ground has cracked up dry. The ricestalks are thin and sickly. Villagers go hungry. And a boy dies from a snakebite. The adults splinter. Some pray. Others join a cult to appease earth spirits and wait for the ada, the ricefield spirit goddess of bountiful harvest who dances naked on moonlit nights and signals the need for a virgins sacrifice. There are fence sitters, equally pro-church and pro-cult. A landlords steward enforces his masters usury on hapless farmers. A self-righteous priest says rain must first be deserved. Two young women fight for the right to do with their bodies as they please. A bastard boy and a blind girl come of age. Yesterday, they were children.

Sa pusod ng dagat

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

In a remote fishing island in the 50’s, Pepito grows up learning the trade of his mother, Rosa, the only midwife capable of delivering the newborn babies of their community. At first, the young son doesn’t mind the unusual arrangement, but as he grows older, he begins to resist the role traditionally meant only for women. In time, Pepito’s coming of age intersects with the lives of the other islanders, whose beliefs and struggles become critical impetus to his maturity.

Ligaya ang itawag mo sa akin

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

When asked for her real name, the feisty woman in a rural whorehouse would quip, “Ligaya. It means joy. And that’s what I sell.” Yet the small-town prostitute is not resigned that she would be in the flesh trade forever. She still harbors the dream of getting out of the job someday. She saves money and fancies that someone would come and marry her as if she were clean and never been a whore. That becomes almost a reality when a hardworking farmer enters her life. Under some problematic circumstances, her chances get blown away-but not exactly of her sole doing.

Abot kamay ang pangarap

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

The film is based on the true story of a maid who was either seduced or raped and made pregnant by her Chinese employer; the baby was either killed by the employer’s wife or by her own hand, depending on who you talk to.