Director
At night, Manila’s red light Burgos district starts shining and its shops get busy welcoming tourists and women from different countries. The life of Tuesday, Amanda and Barbie is also here. Providing sexual services, the three transgender women are close friends. Tuesday hopelessly longs for romantic love. Wise Amanda visits her hometown to attend her ex-girlfriend’s son’s christening. She told her family that she works for a bank and her parents have been renovating their home with her money. To her parents, she is a great son or daughter. To her friends, she is an object of both envy and temptation. Recklessly ambitious Barbie tries to make money through drug dealing, but she feels threatened by dangers hidden everywhere. Pursuing love, success and dreams, their lives become part of a confusing night.
Production Design
Desperately finding ways to support their sickly child, Noel and Liza welcome a new addition to their family, Ben, a rich foreigner who is hoping to build a family of his own. Together they play the game of deceit and make believe, but the truth is far from being hidden as the soap operas they consume daily that vividly mirror what they have been hiding all along.
Art Direction
Mondomanila tells the story of teenage anti-hero Tony de Guzman and the rough neighborhood he calls home.
Director
On the day of Roy's birthday, an unexpected event happens in the lives of the people in his house. Unbeknownst to Diego, a hunk gay waiter, Roy, a student, is the only key to the truths surrounding the lies and deceits in the house. Drugs and hidden motives involving Diego and Sandro, a callboy and student, will be revealed which eventually lead to the death of the latter. Upon knowing that Diego's life is in danger, Orlando, a band member in love with Diego, decided to postpone his intentions of taking his life in order to help the love of his life. Orlando saves Diego from death, but sadly, all is too late. Orlando is weakening and is dying of AIDS. Regardless of the time given to them, Diego and Orlando use the precious remaining time to show their love for each other.
Art Direction
Four men, four stories, all intersect in Manila. Episode one is about Ariel, a con-man. Episode two is about Boy, an expectant father. In the third episode, Ronald goes to Manila to sell a building. And in the fourth story Baste saves his sister from Ariel.
Wardrobe Designer
La familia Pineda –un matriarcado alrededor del cual pululan hijos, nietos, primos y sobrinos- regenta un viejo, barroco, decadente y laberíntico cine dedicado al género erótico. Mientras los miembros de la familia suben y bajan escaleras en sus quehaceres cotidianos, viven ajenos a todo lo que acontece en la sala y los más que poblados pasillos del cine, en los que la prostitución y los travestis campan a sus anchas. Con la bulliciosa Manila como incesante ruido de fondo, el cine, que es también la vivienda de la familia, se revela como un microcosmos con sus propias normas. Especie de neorrealismo a la filipina, la aridez y aparente crudeza de la acción (que apenas abandona el cine) no hace más que aumentar la ternura que despiertan los miembros de este sorprendente clan. Quizá no resulte tan irónico que el nombre del cine sea Family.
