Rafael Manuel

Nights can be long inside Naomi and Ram’s room. Tonight, they have invited Marina over and their messy space is under scrutiny. Exploring intimacy as a personal playground and the skin as an intimate map, Naomi’s docile body unravels in the tension inside a room she keeps grasping and losing. The small child within her is itching to giggle through the night, before the break of day.

Amid stifling heat, Isabel, a 17-year-old Ilocana, works at a posh country club outside Manila. New to the job, she wanders its immaculate grounds, sampling its luxuries. But beneath the pristine fairways, something is rotting. When Isabel tries to return a mislaid golf club to the club’s president, Dr. Palanca, she discovers the violent truths of her workplace, her country, and her own past.

Amid stifling heat, Isabel, a 17-year-old Ilocana, works at a posh country club outside Manila. New to the job, she wanders its immaculate grounds, sampling its luxuries. But beneath the pristine fairways, something is rotting. When Isabel tries to return a mislaid golf club to the club’s president, Dr. Palanca, she discovers the violent truths of her workplace, her country, and her own past.

Amid stifling heat, Isabel, a 17-year-old Ilocana, works at a posh country club outside Manila. New to the job, she wanders its immaculate grounds, sampling its luxuries. But beneath the pristine fairways, something is rotting. When Isabel tries to return a mislaid golf club to the club’s president, Dr. Palanca, she discovers the violent truths of her workplace, her country, and her own past.

A film about a girl drawn to a golf course.

A film about a girl drawn to a golf course.

A film about a girl drawn to a golf course.

A bird called Memory has forgotten how to come back home. Lua, a trans woman, searches for Memory in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, but the city can be a hostile place.

Daily life unfolds in a gated community of Manila amidst birdsong, effigies of the Holy Family, lush greenery and the intricacies of class. Rafael Manuel's (co-director alongside Tatjana Fanny) intimate gaze on his own childhood home oscillates between personal and political, offering a tender yet piercing view into social and familial structures in the Philippines.

Having just moved to Amsterdam, Lou prepares her new apartment that she will share with her partner, Joel. For now though, Joel is on a trip with an intimate other. Confronted with the complexities of her non-monogamous relationship, Lou shifts her gaze to the rhythms of her new city.

Nights can be long inside Naomi and Ram’s room. Tonight, they have invited Marina over and their messy space is under scrutiny. Exploring intimacy as a personal playground and the skin as an intimate map, Naomi’s docile body unravels in the tension inside a room she keeps grasping and losing. The small child within her is itching to giggle through the night, before the break of day.

Tonight, Naomi’s long-term partner reveals to her that he will return to monogamy with one of his recent connections. Confronted with the harsher realities of non-monogamy, Naomi heads out onto the streets of Amsterdam for a night of diverse intimacies, to remember why it is that she committed to this kind of relationship structure in the first place.

Maria is a Filipino maid in London who dreams of gaining British citizenship.