Forbidden Memory (2016)

What You See of Me

Gwen and her boyfriend Adam stumble into an open relationship. However, the light-hearted experiment gradually turns into a flurry of jealousy and unforeseen feelings. As their relationship is put under more and more pressure, Gwen has to face a familiar fear: of being alone.

Erbarme dich - Matthäus Passion Stories

Erbarme dich - Matthäus Passion Stories is a labyrinthine narrative in which notables such as Peter Sellars, Emio Greco, Simon Halsey and painter Rinke Nijburg explain their special relationship with Bach’s St Matthew Passion to Ramón Gieling (Johan Cruijff: en un momento dado). They speak against the backdrop of a church which has fallen into disrepair, while a choir of homeless people and Pieter Jan Leusink’s Bach Choir & Orchestra rehearse the Passion. Leusink isn't just the conductor, he is one of the main characters himself, with a painful past in which this musical piece has played a dominant role. Stories from the others alternate seamlessly with this. We learn how the St Matthew Passion played a decisive role in the relations between men and women, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and their unborn children, and finally that in spite of our differences we all find a common denominator in the secret of Bach's music.

Daddy's Success

One day, Laffen, a family man, homeowner, and watchmaker, overhears his 17-year-old son lecturing his younger siblings. He gives them a shocking analysis of their poor father. The father puts on his workout clothes and goes for a jog in the neighborhood, to the amusement of his neighbors and the despair of his family. After a lucky shot, he wins the gold medal in athletics.

Down to the Bone

A man is wrongfully buried alive, and starts to descend to the Underworld.

The Touch of Flesh

Wealthy landowner Dr. Earl Denton buys a premium development with the intention of leaving it to his daughter, Joan. When Joan gets impregnated by her mechanic boyfriend, she tries to convince her father to help her get an abortion, despite the protestations of her boyfriend.

The Last One of the Six

Paris, France. Commissaire Wens is put in charge of the investigation into the murder of one of six friends who, in the past, made a very profitable promise.

Equator

Although based on a novel by Georges Simenon, director (and songwriter) Serge Gainsbourg has superimposed several dark emotions and a subtle brutality over the weak plot about a man's trip to Africa and his unfortunate passion for a murderess whose amorality sends the disillusioned fellow back to Europe. Sometimes described as frustrating and self-centered, reactions to this film swing across a broad spectrum of complaints -- not the least might be whether or not Gainsbourg is using a clichéd and stereotypical view of "dark Africa" to convey what he sees in his characters.

Just 1 Day

Mosaic, an urban sketch artist suffering from motor neurone disease, meets an old school friend, Angelfish, at a class reunion. As his illness takes a tragic hold, he asks her to fulfil one wish - to be his girlfriend for just a day.

Femmes des bois

A foray into the singular world of forest encampments where, for work, women and men from here and elsewhere meet. It is through the eyes of women who have chosen to work there that we will discover these micro-societies that are formed over the sivicultural seasons.

Blindsided

Blind man and apple pie connoisseur Walter Cookeventures to his neighborhood corner store to buy milk and apples. When mafia thugs try to shake down the storeowner, Walter shows them what a blind martial artist is capable of!

Do-Re-Mi-Boom!

A man falls in love with a piano player and tries to woo her. A passerby hears a maid's music, fancies he's found his true love, and chats her up. Her boyfriend arrives for his music lesson and jealously dismisses the interloper, who swipes a grinder's organ (and monkey) to help him serenade the maid. Later he follows the boyfriend to a residence hotel and plants a bomb in the man's piano. The organ-grinder is gunning for the thief, and soon the piano, bomb, monkey, thief, and pistol-packing grinder are rolling down the road to the delight of maid and lover. It's ka-boom for some and a kiss for others.

The Mystery of the Almond Trees

A pair of macho private detectives pose as a gay couple to gain access into the world of a perverted wealthy widow, Doña Josefina, also known as “Mrs. Open Mind.” The widow’s summer home, it seems, is a legendary lightning rod for scandal because of mysterious and evil incidents that occur there.

Magistrarna på sommarlov

Inga Danell's summer vacation is near. But unfortunately both Inga and her brother Acke have bad grades and are forced to study by the help of a tutor.

The Last Blood

A soldier attacks his corrupt superior officer and is court marshalled but before he can be sent to a firing squad he escapes...

Small Boat

The photographs of two elderly people used in this work were taken during a train journey in the first half of Ishii's previous work, "Wind crossing" He uses it as a photograph. There is no doubt that these two are particularly memorable for Ishii, but how should we as an audience perceive these acts? Then something occurred to me. In my work "Guiding Star", there is a part where I walk through an underground passage at night during a trip in Hokuriku. That place was Kanazawa. Lately I've been visiting Kanazawa every year for the Maki Asakawa live video screening, but most of the time I travel from Kansai to Kanazawa, or vice versa, by express bus. Then, the bus always passes through that underground passage. Ah, it was here. With that thought in mind, I play with the memories of that trip for a while, no longer happy or sad, but dry and dry. It might be something similar. However, in my case, unlike Ishii's narration in the story, I feel like "it somehow continued to live." M.Yamazaki

Before Winter Comes

A family on a small farm tries to live as usual even though there is a violent coup in the country. The threat is constantly present.

Tenebrae Lessons

“The Nineties had a pretty bad start”, this is how Vincent Dieutre introduces us to the shadows of his personal universe in those years going through Utrecht, Naples and Rome. In these three cities and two love affairs guide a homosexual man on his nightly search for lost beauty. In a cross between a diary and a baroque play the film reconstructs the fragments of a fateful journey against a Caravaggio backdrop. Painting, sensuality, losing oneself in a cityscape: the Leçons de ténèbres form an obscure fresco, a white-hot collage of trashy vanity.

Ruhe! Hier stirbt Lothar

When the misanthropic tile salesman Lothar is diagnosed with a terminal disease, he sells his business and gives his dog and all his money to an animal shelter and checks into a hospice, where it turns out that he was misdiagnosed.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse

A chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.

The Girl and the Typhoons

French actress Marion Cotillard travelled to the Philippines to meet with children and young people on climate change and what they want big-polluting governments to do about it. One of the girls she met is Marinel, a survivor of the Super Typhoon disaster in the Philippines in 2013, who is taking action on climate change in her own community. She participates in Plan International’s climate change adaptation projects and now teaches at youth camps to pass on everything she has learnt to the younger children. Marinel travelled to Paris with Plan International for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in December 2015.

Backpacking The Philippines: 3 Weeks, 5 Islands

Ever wanted to go on a backpacking adventure around the Philippines? Me and my mate James are heading to the Philippines to travel for 3 weeks, but does it live up to the hype?

My Name is Sandara

Before 2NE1 achieved global success, Sandara was already a superstar in the Philippines.

Appointment in Tokyo

Produced by the Army Pictorial Service, Signal Corps, with the cooperation of the Army Air Forces and the United States Navy, and released by Warner Bros. for the War Activities Committee shortly after the surrender of Japan. Follow General Douglas MacArthur and his men from their exile from the Philippines in early 1942, through the signing of the instrument of surrender on the USS Missouri on September 1, 1945. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Machete Maidens Unleashed!

In the final decades of the 20th century, the Philippines was a country where low-budget exploitation-film producers were free to make nearly any kind of movie they wanted, any way they pleased. It was a country with extremely lax labor regulations and a very permissive attitude towards cultural expression. As a result, it became a hotbed for the production of cheapie movies. Their history and the genre itself are detailed in this breezy, nostalgic documentary.

Storm Children, Book One

The Philippines is visited by an average of 20~28 strong typhoons and storms every year. It is the most storm-battered country in the world. Last year, Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), considered the strongest storm in history, struck the Philipines, leaving in its path apocalyptic devastation.

Sunday Beauty Queen

Beneath Hong Kong's glittering facade, Filipina domestic helpers work in relative anonymity and for near-slave wages. In a beauty pageant like no other, five helpers give themselves makeovers for a day and gleefully reclaim their dignity.

Motherland

The planet’s busiest maternity hospital is located in one of its poorest and most populous countries: the Philippines. There, poor women face devastating consequences as their country struggles with reproductive health policy and the politics of conservative Catholic ideologies.

We Were the Scenery

In 1975, soon after the end of the Vietnam War, Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che fled the country on a small boat. After nine days at sea, they docked in the Philippines, where they were utilized as background extras for “Apocalypse Now.”

Kid Kulafu

Before he became one of the world's greatest boxers, Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao was a young boy living a hand-to-mouth existence, trying to survive from one day to the next. When he discovers his natural talent for boxing, he embarks on a brutal and intense journey that takes him from the mountains of the Philippines to the streets of Manila, and must risk everything to become a champion - for himself, his family, and his country.

The Pirates of Buban

By going to the Philippines, Imamura comes to meet people living in an extreme poverty. He discovers very quickly that some communities are under the control of cruel & armed pirates. Imamura will come to meet those men in order to understand their position.

Eldest Among the Seven

Sampaloc Lake - the most prominent of the seven lakes of San Pablo City has provided shelter, employment and inspiration to its immediate community for countless decades. In return, the natural resource suffered from indiscriminate use of the residents themselves and the consequences of rapid urbanization. Recently, the local government have implemented a clearing of all residential structures within the legal easement of the dying lake to pave the way for a tourism master plan that endeavors to balance revenue and environmental protection. In the eve of the clearing operations, film maker Dennis Empalmado documented the final musings of the residents, advocates, and artists whose lives revolved around the 99 hectare crater lake.

Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay

A professional horror movie extra prepares for her first ever acting award nomination.

Dahling Nick

The story of Nick Joaquin, who only accepted the National Artist Award on the condition that the Marcos administration release a well-known writer who was being unjustly detained during Martial Law.

Cuba, 1898: la caída del Imperio español

A brief account of the Spanish-American War (1898) and the end of the Spanish Empire in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

A Bad Name

Two street artists with contrasting intentions about the artform tell the relevance of street art in society while accompanied by an enigmatic graffiti writing, “Bon Jovi.”

ICYMI: I See Me

A music documentary on MNL48, a franchise of the highly successful Japanese idol group, AKB48. The film looks into the girls as they perform within a music subculture that tries to get a foothold in a market of an overtly critical audience.

Harana: The Search for the Lost Art of Serenade

Upon his father's death, Florante, a classically trained guitarist returns to the Philippines after 12 years of absence. During his stay he rediscovers the music of harana - a long-forgotten tradition of Filipino serenading when men sang under the window at night to fearlessly declare their love for a woman. Intent on unearthing these unheralded songs, Florante travels to the remote provinces where he discovers three of the last surviving practitioners - a farmer, a fisherman and a tricycle driver. Astounded by their golden voices, Florante asks them to travel with him to perform and record these unknown songs. During their travels, the haranistas meet Brian, a shy young man who for years has been secretly in love with a schoolmate. The haranistas, who have not serenaded in the last thirty years, offered their services to serenade Brian's object of affection, resulting in one of the most tender moments of genuine harana captured on film.

Kasama Kang Tumanda

A filmmaker follows her grandparents’ daily life after her chain-smoker and alcoholic grandmother is forced to stop drinking beer for a month.

The Guerilla is a Poet

The tale of an activist’s journey during the turbulent years of Martial Law, until his capture in the mountains and the dark, nine years of imprisonment that followed, leading to his birth as a poet.

Angpao, diskarteng Badjao

The story explores the life of three Badjao brothers, Diether, Rakmel, and Agi, who beg on jeepneys. This documentary captures the difficult realities the siblings face every day in the bustling streets of Manila, where they are often unnoticed and ignored by society. By speaking out and supporting initiatives to alleviate inequity, Angpao, diskarteng Badjao encourages viewers to acknowledge these problems and take action.

The Philippines: Land and People

Reviews the history of the Philippine Islands under Spanish and American rule. Shows country today with its emphasis on agriculture, and contrasts the rural life with the urban existence in the port of Manila.

LUSAW: Exploring Urban Agriculture

Two filmmakers take on a journey to explore the intricacies of the long-suffering Philippine agriculture, seeking for possible solutions as they figure out the factors causing the crisis.

Bontok, Rapeless

Two Filipina victims of sexual abuse search the truth behind the finding of a renowned anthropologist: that merely a few generations ago, the Bontok Igorot lived in what seems an unthinkable utopia—a rape-less society.

Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War

Crucible of Empire demonstrates how and why the Spanish-American War constitutes such an important milestone in U.S. history. This program examines the events and attitudes that led to war, followed by an exploration of the conflict and its outcome. Early film footage and stills of battle scenes, plus rich visuals, a compelling story, and intriguing analogies to current foreign policy make Crucible of Empire a riveting documentary.

People Power Bombshell: The Diary of Vietnam Rose

The unfinished movie of the late Celso Ad Castillo now a Cinema One Originals documentary film.