
Directing
Joselito Altarejos
Place of birth
Philippines
Known for
Directing
Credits
41 titles
Joselito Altarejos is an accomplished Filipino filmmaker having won several prestigious awards in the Philippines as well as internationally. He is well known for his ground-breaking openly gay-themed film features like The Man in the Lighthouse (in Tagalog Ang Lalake sa Parola), Antonio's Secret (in Tagalog Ang Lihim ni Antonio), Kambyo, The Game of Juan's Life (in Tagalog Ang Laro ng Buhay ni Juan ), Pink Halo-Halo, Unfriend, The Commitment (in Tagalog Kasal]] . His 2017 film Tale of the Lost Boys was filmed in Taiwan. His films were celebrated at international LGBT film festivals. Altarejos has also worked for Filipino television doing series and anthologies including the long-running TV …
Known for
5.7The story about a teenage boy, Antonio, whose emerging gay sexuality alienates him from his friends and family, until his libertine uncle, Jonbert, comes to live with him and his mother.
Antonio's Secret
2008
4.8Laruang Lalake is a realist film that portrays the workers within the Filipino gay film industry and their personal stories - from the naughty to the gritty, from the horny to the hopeful. The film weaves the journey of ambitious probinsyano actor Samuel, Marc the idealistic film crew member who is secretly in love with Samuel and Wilredo a filmmaker on the brink of bankruptcy. And then there is also Peejay who is determined to steal a name for himeslf. As the camera grinds between naked bodies in homerotic play, its all in a day's work for eveyone living in a society that is yet to acept the Filipino gay man.
Boy Toys
2010
4.6Tale of the Lost Boys is the story of the friendship between two men Alex, a Filipino mechanic, and Jerry, a Taiwanese aborigine student. The two meet randomly when Alex flees to Taipei from Manila, upon learning that his girlfriend is pregnant. A casual conversation develops into a surprising personal connection between them. Both realize that they yearn for a more intimate connection with their mothers, since Alex’s abandoned him for a new family while Jerry is afraid that his traditional parents will reject him for being gay. The two men go on a road trip and end up at Jerry’s tribe. The trip eventually makes them reconnect with their mothers and both discover a certain sense of identity and freedom.
Tale of the Lost Boys
2018
NRNatoy, like any other child, finds joy and excitement in the simplest of things, especially in eating halo-halo filled with pink gelatin and red sago. Things change suddenly when, as he is watching television, a news report about the ongoing war in Mindanao shows footage of a badly wounded soldier waiting to be rescued. That soldier, almost bleeding to death, is his father, Corporal Lino Bolante. This starts his journey as he and his mother Sonia wait for help that comes too late. This story does not only show how the war in Mindanao robs a child of his innocence, but also shows the shadows of war that Filipino homes confront everyday.
Pink Halo-Halo
2010
NRDuring a film shoot where abuse is disguised as artistic direction, a comeback actress commits a devastating performance to survive, exposing how cinema can construct and legitimize violence. In Ang Lihim ni Teresa (Teresa's Secret), she enters a set where authority is absolute and cruelty is framed as discipline. As production unfolds, she loses control over body, emotion, and authorship, where survival is mistaken for consent. When violence escalates, she chooses to live, burying the truth as the director’s collapse is rewritten as myth. The set becomes a crime scene without witnesses. In the aftermath, she is praised for her “courage” while a sound technician retreats into silence. At a commemorative screening, celebration fractures, revealing cinema’s ability to transform violence into narrative and absolution. The myth of the Kataw appears briefly through Ang Lihim ng Kataw (The Secret of Kataw).
Greatest Performance
2026
NRThe protagonist and his boyfriend Marco have a steady relationship, but when he meets Joaquin at the same time, he develops an unexpected connection.
Lonely Connections
2023
Film credits
Behind the camera
5.7The story about a teenage boy, Antonio, whose emerging gay sexuality alienates him from his friends and family, until his libertine uncle, Jonbert, comes to live with him and his mother.
Antonio's Secret
2008
4.8Laruang Lalake is a realist film that portrays the workers within the Filipino gay film industry and their personal stories - from the naughty to the gritty, from the horny to the hopeful. The film weaves the journey of ambitious probinsyano actor Samuel, Marc the idealistic film crew member who is secretly in love with Samuel and Wilredo a filmmaker on the brink of bankruptcy. And then there is also Peejay who is determined to steal a name for himeslf. As the camera grinds between naked bodies in homerotic play, its all in a day's work for eveyone living in a society that is yet to acept the Filipino gay man.
Boy Toys
2010
4.6Tale of the Lost Boys is the story of the friendship between two men Alex, a Filipino mechanic, and Jerry, a Taiwanese aborigine student. The two meet randomly when Alex flees to Taipei from Manila, upon learning that his girlfriend is pregnant. A casual conversation develops into a surprising personal connection between them. Both realize that they yearn for a more intimate connection with their mothers, since Alex’s abandoned him for a new family while Jerry is afraid that his traditional parents will reject him for being gay. The two men go on a road trip and end up at Jerry’s tribe. The trip eventually makes them reconnect with their mothers and both discover a certain sense of identity and freedom.
Tale of the Lost Boys
2018
NRNatoy, like any other child, finds joy and excitement in the simplest of things, especially in eating halo-halo filled with pink gelatin and red sago. Things change suddenly when, as he is watching television, a news report about the ongoing war in Mindanao shows footage of a badly wounded soldier waiting to be rescued. That soldier, almost bleeding to death, is his father, Corporal Lino Bolante. This starts his journey as he and his mother Sonia wait for help that comes too late. This story does not only show how the war in Mindanao robs a child of his innocence, but also shows the shadows of war that Filipino homes confront everyday.
Pink Halo-Halo
2010
NRNatoy, like any other child, finds joy and excitement in the simplest of things, especially in eating halo-halo filled with pink gelatin and red sago. Things change suddenly when, as he is watching television, a news report about the ongoing war in Mindanao shows footage of a badly wounded soldier waiting to be rescued. That soldier, almost bleeding to death, is his father, Corporal Lino Bolante. This starts his journey as he and his mother Sonia wait for help that comes too late. This story does not only show how the war in Mindanao robs a child of his innocence, but also shows the shadows of war that Filipino homes confront everyday.
Pink Halo-Halo
2010
NRNatoy, like any other child, finds joy and excitement in the simplest of things, especially in eating halo-halo filled with pink gelatin and red sago. Things change suddenly when, as he is watching television, a news report about the ongoing war in Mindanao shows footage of a badly wounded soldier waiting to be rescued. That soldier, almost bleeding to death, is his father, Corporal Lino Bolante. This starts his journey as he and his mother Sonia wait for help that comes too late. This story does not only show how the war in Mindanao robs a child of his innocence, but also shows the shadows of war that Filipino homes confront everyday.
Pink Halo-Halo
2010
NRDuring a film shoot where abuse is disguised as artistic direction, a comeback actress commits a devastating performance to survive, exposing how cinema can construct and legitimize violence. In Ang Lihim ni Teresa (Teresa's Secret), she enters a set where authority is absolute and cruelty is framed as discipline. As production unfolds, she loses control over body, emotion, and authorship, where survival is mistaken for consent. When violence escalates, she chooses to live, burying the truth as the director’s collapse is rewritten as myth. The set becomes a crime scene without witnesses. In the aftermath, she is praised for her “courage” while a sound technician retreats into silence. At a commemorative screening, celebration fractures, revealing cinema’s ability to transform violence into narrative and absolution. The myth of the Kataw appears briefly through Ang Lihim ng Kataw (The Secret of Kataw).
Greatest Performance
2026
NRDuring a film shoot where abuse is disguised as artistic direction, a comeback actress commits a devastating performance to survive, exposing how cinema can construct and legitimize violence. In Ang Lihim ni Teresa (Teresa's Secret), she enters a set where authority is absolute and cruelty is framed as discipline. As production unfolds, she loses control over body, emotion, and authorship, where survival is mistaken for consent. When violence escalates, she chooses to live, burying the truth as the director’s collapse is rewritten as myth. The set becomes a crime scene without witnesses. In the aftermath, she is praised for her “courage” while a sound technician retreats into silence. At a commemorative screening, celebration fractures, revealing cinema’s ability to transform violence into narrative and absolution. The myth of the Kataw appears briefly through Ang Lihim ng Kataw (The Secret of Kataw).
Greatest Performance
2026
NRThe protagonist and his boyfriend Marco have a steady relationship, but when he meets Joaquin at the same time, he develops an unexpected connection.
Lonely Connections
2023
NRThe protagonist and his boyfriend Marco have a steady relationship, but when he meets Joaquin at the same time, he develops an unexpected connection.
Lonely Connections
2023
NRThe protagonist and his boyfriend Marco have a steady relationship, but when he meets Joaquin at the same time, he develops an unexpected connection.
Lonely Connections
2023
3.0A story that follows Eric, a young man returning to his old hometown to fulfill his mother’s wish for him to scatter her ashes there. He will meet his childhood friend Jericho and they will reconnect recalling distant memories of their youth.
Memories of a Love Story
2022
7.0Clarisse is neglected by her boyfriend James. Together with her friends Dindi and Cynthia they create an imaginary suitor complete with a name- Aaron Nakpil. Clarisse's plan works too well. It turns out that there is a real Aaron Nakpil with all the qualifications they wished for in an imaginary suitor. Clarisse's concludes it fate but Aaron is not willing to give up his current girlfriend for her. Until Aaron's girlfriend dumps him. He then takes up a friend's challenge to transform Clarisse into a cool campus figure.
Kiss Mo 'Ko
1999
4.0"Little Boy Big Boy" tells the story of a carefree graphic artist named Raymund and how he is filled with doubt as he is suddenly faced with the responsibility of looking after his seven-year-old nephew Zach. But while taking care of Zach, Raymund finds himself in the middle of building a relationship with his new lover Tim where he teaches him the value of acceptance and self-respect.
Little Boy Big Boy
2009
3.0With his family life in shambles amidst the government's war on drugs, a young man transitions from being an ordinary filmmaker to being a full-fledged member of the revolutionary movement, proving that conviction knows no gender.
The Revolution Knows No Gender
2021
3.0With his family life in shambles amidst the government's war on drugs, a young man transitions from being an ordinary filmmaker to being a full-fledged member of the revolutionary movement, proving that conviction knows no gender.
The Revolution Knows No Gender
2021
3.0With his family life in shambles amidst the government's war on drugs, a young man transitions from being an ordinary filmmaker to being a full-fledged member of the revolutionary movement, proving that conviction knows no gender.
The Revolution Knows No Gender
2021
4.2On Christmas Day, 15 year old David finds out that his boyfriend, Jonathan has taken another lover. The discovery leads him on the brink of depression making him think of ways to have him back at all cost. He has invited Jonathan to see him on this day for the last time.
Unfriend
2014
4.2On Christmas Day, 15 year old David finds out that his boyfriend, Jonathan has taken another lover. The discovery leads him on the brink of depression making him think of ways to have him back at all cost. He has invited Jonathan to see him on this day for the last time.
Unfriend
2014
5.3Mateo is a lighthouse caretaker dating a teacher Suzette. The small town they are in is trying to increase tourism. Jerome stumbles across Mateo and Suzette having sex, whilst he is on holiday from Manila. A local a gay man, who pays local teenage boys for sex, talks to Mateo about the negative aspects of being gay in the Philippines. According to local legend, a lighthouse fairy seduces desirable men who then never marry. Mateo's relationship with Jerome leads to self reevaluation
The Man in the Lighthouse
2007
NRIn the final hours of 2021, a chance encounter between two out-of-luck young actors leads to an intimate but unstable relationship. With their careers stalled and their emotions unbalanced by the epidemic, they seek solace in each other, but they can't tell if it's love or just a physical need. How do they find true companionship when everything is uncertain, and desire and vulnerability are intertwined?
In a Time of Uncertainty
2025
NRIn the final hours of 2021, a chance encounter between two out-of-luck young actors leads to an intimate but unstable relationship. With their careers stalled and their emotions unbalanced by the epidemic, they seek solace in each other, but they can't tell if it's love or just a physical need. How do they find true companionship when everything is uncertain, and desire and vulnerability are intertwined?
In a Time of Uncertainty
2025
4.3The Game of Juan’s Life explores two hours in the life of Juan Reyes, a live-sex performer at an underground gay bar, who has decided to leave Manila and go back to his home province. On the day of his departure, he will take us with him as he makes life decisions, big and small. The most important one of all is leaving the impoverished place he called home for the past year, capping it with emotional goodbyes to his lover, Noel. Then, he will lead us to the underground bar for his last performance, and an event that will cause him to question his resolve.
The Game of Juan's Life
2009
4.3The Game of Juan’s Life explores two hours in the life of Juan Reyes, a live-sex performer at an underground gay bar, who has decided to leave Manila and go back to his home province. On the day of his departure, he will take us with him as he makes life decisions, big and small. The most important one of all is leaving the impoverished place he called home for the past year, capping it with emotional goodbyes to his lover, Noel. Then, he will lead us to the underground bar for his last performance, and an event that will cause him to question his resolve.
The Game of Juan's Life
2009
6.3Two sex workers, a 17-year-old Gino and young mother Marie, are hired to do a pornographic film. The day before All Saints' Day, they travel to a remote location for the shoot. During the shooting, they are made to do acts to which they didn't agree. Feeling trapped and isolated, the two are pushed to the edge of their dignity.
Gino and Marie
2019
6.3Two sex workers, a 17-year-old Gino and young mother Marie, are hired to do a pornographic film. The day before All Saints' Day, they travel to a remote location for the shoot. During the shooting, they are made to do acts to which they didn't agree. Feeling trapped and isolated, the two are pushed to the edge of their dignity.
Gino and Marie
2019
4.8Miguel is an abusive husband to Teresa, a former town-beauty queen. They have an eight-year old son, JR. Their small family lives with Miguel’s parents. The family is shattered by the vicious cycle of domestic abuse. After a night of beating, Teresa, goaded by a friend, seeks TPO (Temporary Protection Order) from the court. TPO is a legal remedy that a woman can avail of under Republic Act 9262 (Violence Against Women and Children Law) to protect her and her child against anyone harming them. Teresa is granted the TPO against Miguel. But in this legal tug-of-war of familial rights, their son ,JR, is ignored. Until, he shows aggression in school.But Miguel’s parents coax Miguel to file for Child Custody.
T.P.O.: Temporary Protection Order
2016
4.5Kasal is a slice of life drama of a gay couple whose resolve to stay together is challenged as they attend a wedding. It also is an examination on how a gay couple navigates through the different institutions in Philippine society.
The Commitment
2014
NRAfter 10 years, high school sweethearts Adelle and Noel meet again. Their passionate romance is reignited. Love and Pain In Between Refrains is a love story bound by music, but marred by violence. Where will this addictive love end?
Love and Pain in Between Refrains
2021
NRAfter 10 years, high school sweethearts Adelle and Noel meet again. Their passionate romance is reignited. Love and Pain In Between Refrains is a love story bound by music, but marred by violence. Where will this addictive love end?
Love and Pain in Between Refrains
2021
A filmmaker and an actor examine what remains of their ten-year relationship at a mountain retreat, two years after it ended. As old wounds, shared memories, and long-kept secrets resurface, they are forced to confront the ways cinema shaped their love and the distance that grew between them.
Sa Pagitan ng Ulap
—
A filmmaker and an actor examine what remains of their ten-year relationship at a mountain retreat, two years after it ended. As old wounds, shared memories, and long-kept secrets resurface, they are forced to confront the ways cinema shaped their love and the distance that grew between them.
Sa Pagitan ng Ulap
—
5.0Journey with Robert and Emily, a couple teetering on the edge of separation. Determined to rekindle their fading romance, they heed the counsel of their marriage therapist, embarking on a weekend getaway to a secluded, private resort.
The Last Resort
2023
5.0Journey with Robert and Emily, a couple teetering on the edge of separation. Determined to rekindle their fading romance, they heed the counsel of their marriage therapist, embarking on a weekend getaway to a secluded, private resort.
The Last Resort
2023
NR“Guardia De Honor” is about a family grappling with a present tragedy and a dark past. A policeman is interrogated by a neophyte investigator on the killings of a mother and son on the eve of the new President's inauguration.
The Guardian of Honor
2024
NR“Guardia De Honor” is about a family grappling with a present tragedy and a dark past. A policeman is interrogated by a neophyte investigator on the killings of a mother and son on the eve of the new President's inauguration.
The Guardian of Honor
2024
NR“Guardia De Honor” is about a family grappling with a present tragedy and a dark past. A policeman is interrogated by a neophyte investigator on the killings of a mother and son on the eve of the new President's inauguration.
The Guardian of Honor
2024
3.0Two men who have an unacknowledged relationship five years ago meet each other during the pandemic. Will they finally have a happy ending or a mother’s love get in the way to protect her son?
Memories of Forgetting
2021
3.0Two men who have an unacknowledged relationship five years ago meet each other during the pandemic. Will they finally have a happy ending or a mother’s love get in the way to protect her son?
Memories of Forgetting
2021
3.0Two men who have an unacknowledged relationship five years ago meet each other during the pandemic. Will they finally have a happy ending or a mother’s love get in the way to protect her son?
Memories of Forgetting
2021

