Joanne Cesario

Directing

Joanne Cesario

Born 1995-09-22

Joanne Cesario is an artist, unionist, and activist from the Philippines. Working across film, photography, and publishing, she weaves together personal and collective histories of women’s struggles, labour, and ever-shifting physical and social landscapes. Joanne's short films have been screened and recognised at numerous international film festivals, including Locarno, the San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Hong Kong International Film Festival, among others. Her photographs and zines have been exhibited both locally and internationally. She has received production support and grants from a range of institutions, including the NoExit Grant, awarded by Para Site, Hong Kong’s leading contemporary art centre.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Invisible Labor poster
8.0

Marcos then, Marcos now. Filipino workers unite and lead the struggle for economic and political rights, determined to shape the course of history. In between, a janitor painstakingly rewinds videotapes featuring these struggles, unknowingly aiding in the preservation of history.​

Invisible Labor

2024

Invisible Labor poster
8.0

Marcos then, Marcos now. Filipino workers unite and lead the struggle for economic and political rights, determined to shape the course of history. In between, a janitor painstakingly rewinds videotapes featuring these struggles, unknowingly aiding in the preservation of history.​

Invisible Labor

2024

Uwian Na poster
NR

Ling is in her last year in elementary school. One school day, her botanist father fails to pick her up and doesn't return home from fieldwork. Fearing that her father has gone missing because there were not enough plants to see in their place, Ling begins planting in her own bedroom.

Uwian Na

2016

Uwian Na poster
NR

Ling is in her last year in elementary school. One school day, her botanist father fails to pick her up and doesn't return home from fieldwork. Fearing that her father has gone missing because there were not enough plants to see in their place, Ling begins planting in her own bedroom.

Uwian Na

2016

Uwian Na poster
NR

Ling is in her last year in elementary school. One school day, her botanist father fails to pick her up and doesn't return home from fieldwork. Fearing that her father has gone missing because there were not enough plants to see in their place, Ling begins planting in her own bedroom.

Uwian Na

2016

Here, Here poster
NR

Years after mining operations began, a once rugged and undisturbed town changes drastically. Koi, 22, returns home for the first time since leaving for college, and does so with an infected ear. He joins his mother Tonet in waiting for his father, both of them clueless as to whether his father could make it home alive after an accident in the extraction tunnel. As Koi reconnects with his hometown in slow decay, he fears the impending possibility of losing both his father and his hearing. Part fiction, part experiment, and purposefully blurring the distinction, Here, Here is a loose visual study on landscapes and terrains, both natural and beyond.

Here, Here

2019

Here, Here poster
NR

Years after mining operations began, a once rugged and undisturbed town changes drastically. Koi, 22, returns home for the first time since leaving for college, and does so with an infected ear. He joins his mother Tonet in waiting for his father, both of them clueless as to whether his father could make it home alive after an accident in the extraction tunnel. As Koi reconnects with his hometown in slow decay, he fears the impending possibility of losing both his father and his hearing. Part fiction, part experiment, and purposefully blurring the distinction, Here, Here is a loose visual study on landscapes and terrains, both natural and beyond.

Here, Here

2019

Here, Here poster
NR

Years after mining operations began, a once rugged and undisturbed town changes drastically. Koi, 22, returns home for the first time since leaving for college, and does so with an infected ear. He joins his mother Tonet in waiting for his father, both of them clueless as to whether his father could make it home alive after an accident in the extraction tunnel. As Koi reconnects with his hometown in slow decay, he fears the impending possibility of losing both his father and his hearing. Part fiction, part experiment, and purposefully blurring the distinction, Here, Here is a loose visual study on landscapes and terrains, both natural and beyond.

Here, Here

2019

Neither Here Nor There, But Just As Important poster
NR

An assemblage of text, photos, and videos that reflects on the departure of the filmmaker's close friends from and to the mountains to take part in the struggle for societal liberation, and the subsequent guilt that the filmmaker feels for her inability to make the same decisions.

Neither Here Nor There, But Just As Important

Neither Here Nor There, But Just As Important poster
NR

An assemblage of text, photos, and videos that reflects on the departure of the filmmaker's close friends from and to the mountains to take part in the struggle for societal liberation, and the subsequent guilt that the filmmaker feels for her inability to make the same decisions.

Neither Here Nor There, But Just As Important