Tikoy Aguiluz

The bizarre history of Filipino B-films, as told through filmmaker Andrew Leavold's personal quest to find the truth behind its midget James Bond superstar Weng Weng.

Abner lives a drab, downcast, solitary existence. His wife has abandoned him for good. Working for pest control company Panther, his job remains his sole connection to the outside world. It seems going nowhere until he meets Viola, a client who is existence is as sad as his. Wife of a vain college teacher Dodie, Viola is a trapped bird. And meeting Abner seems to give her a chance to fly free. The house, infested with rats all around, becomes a powder keg of emotions and danger as sexual tension between Abner and Viola turns to illicit affair, all happening under Dodie’s nose. In order to extend their relationship, Abner devices something that will eventually lead to a tragedy that will change their lives forever.

Mobster Asiong Salonga (ER Ejercito) rules the mean streets of Manila with an iron fist—until he is betrayed by a trusted friend. Manila Kingpin is based on the story of the notorious Tondo, Manila, gang leader Nicasio “Asiong” Salonga, whose true-to-life accounts had been portrayed in several movie versions since 1961 (starring Joseph Estrada). It is also the first Filipino major film produced in black-and-white in the 21st century as well as the returning action genre movie. Before the film was shown, Tikoy Aguiluz requested the producers, through his lawyers, that his directorial credits in the film and promotional tools be removed because the final version of the film can no longer be described as his after the producers made a reedit, re-shoot and music mixing without his involvement. He also demanded that he be allowed to make a director's cut of the film.

Conrado Balweg, a former priest, fought to protect his people's land and became a beloved leader, but was also hated by the government and admired by women.

www.XXX.com peeks into the world of internet prostitution. A Fil-Am girl (Palermo) escapes the consequences of her State-side abortion by going back to her home country. With relatives greeting her with unwelcome arms, Joanna tries to make sense of her life and gets into the clutches of a smooth cybercafe owner (Gary Estrada) who introduces her to Web Diva.Com. She eventually becomes their big money-maker while catching a tentative affair with Spike (Carlo Maceda) -- a misguided hacker who (cheekily enough) created the Love virus in the movie.

Biyaheng Langit tells the story of Bea, a young Filipino-American (Joyce Jimenez). Bea is bored; all she wants in life is to raise five thousand dollars so that she can live independently in the United States. To relieve her boredom, Bea follows her grandmother (Nida Blanca) to the casino, where they gamble all night; this is where she meets Danny (Mark Anthony Fernandez), a runner who collects money from the tables for Bosing (Bembol Roco).

Minda, in her forties, is having a torrid affair with the younger Dave, and is trying to hide it from her husband Chito. Dave is an occasional tattoo artist. He also plays drums in a rock and roll band that has a difficult time finding gigs, now that the US Navy has left Subic Bay. One day Stephanie, a Philippino-American who came to the Philippines on a cultural discovery tour, turns up at Minda's house claiming she is her daughter, whom she gave away for adoption twenty years earlier. Stephanie has questions about her adoption that Minda is unwilling to answer. Dave arrives and takes Stephanie out, much to the annoyance of Minda.

In the daytime, Karen is an insurance saleswoman in Manila, but in the evening she works as an escort in a club.

A ritual performed by women to invoke the gods to grant the blessing of fertility by dancing around a Balete tree that was already a century old.

A ritual performed by women to invoke the gods to grant the blessing of fertility by dancing around a Balete tree that was already a century old.

An erstwhile boatman wants to do a little more than paddle his own canoe in the town famed for its waterfalls. He leaves the village of his roots for the city and lands a job as a live-sex actor called toro in street lingo derived from the Spanish term for bull. Quick successes in his newfound profession delude him into regarding that the measure of a man is in his trousers. He has a partner on stage and off. Despite her cynicism and tough veneer, she sees in him a way out of the slums and the red light district.

The heartbreaking plight of the overseas contract workers is dramatized in the tragic tale of Flor Contemplacion - the Filipino domestic helper in Singapore convicted of murder and condemned to death. Accounts culled from reports of Amnesty International as well as classified info gathered in the Asian city-state itself are combined with actual footages and recreated scenes of events leading to the heroine's execution.

Dr. Jose Rizal was exiled in Dapitan from 1892-1896. These were his last four years. Dapitan served as his prison cell. He always compared it to “a beautiful cage” where he is imprisoned. This was the longest imprisonment Rizal ever had. He became so lost by those times, but still he did not lose his mind. Even there, he continued studying and discovering things. He continued his conversation with his friends, scientists and doctors outside the country.

A team of exorcists are sent into an old theater that is rumored to have been the site of a great tragedy during its construction.

Conrado Balweg, a former priest, fought to protect his people's land and became a beloved leader, but was also hated by the government and admired by women.

This documentary on a rebel group in the Philippines delivers a certain amount of propaganda along with inadvertent information on the kinds of issues inherited by President Corazon Aquino's new government in the mid-'80s. The rebel group in question fought dictator Ferdinand Marcos for years and were joined in 1979 by Father Conrado Balweg. One year later, Father Balweg was defrocked for taking up arms against Marcos. After the dictator was deposed and Aquino elected president, she sent a representative (her brother-in-law) to talk to the rebels about their demands. This meeting is recorded in the second half of the documentary. The first half contains the usual stock phrases about Third World problems, and explains little except that this rebel group wants independence from the Philippines for the region they control.

A man whose "agimat" enables him to be invincible becomes at odds with another member of his gang who wants to rise to the seat of the group leader.

An erstwhile boatman wants to do a little more than paddle his own canoe in the town famed for its waterfalls. He leaves the village of his roots for the city and lands a job as a live-sex actor called toro in street lingo derived from the Spanish term for bull. Quick successes in his newfound profession delude him into regarding that the measure of a man is in his trousers. He has a partner on stage and off. Despite her cynicism and tough veneer, she sees in him a way out of the slums and the red light district.

In the daytime, Karen is an insurance saleswoman in Manila, but in the evening she works as an escort in a club.

Documentary about the history of Philippine cinema.

Dr. Jose Rizal was exiled in Dapitan from 1892-1896. These were his last four years. Dapitan served as his prison cell. He always compared it to “a beautiful cage” where he is imprisoned. This was the longest imprisonment Rizal ever had. He became so lost by those times, but still he did not lose his mind. Even there, he continued studying and discovering things. He continued his conversation with his friends, scientists and doctors outside the country.

Julio, a young fisherman from a provincial village, descends into social alienation as he arrives in Manila to search for his loved one.