HYPERFOCUS

HYPERFOCUS consists of six filmmakers and media practitioners who have come together to draw from each other’s expertise to champion storytelling on screen and break new ground. We also collaborate with individuals and non-profit organizations to support advocacies and mission-driven initiatives, seeking ways on how we can leverage on our ability to tell stories for the greater good. Work with us and let’s create together! www.hyperfocus.ph

Learn more about our collective! Visit our official website: www.hyperfocus.ph

For partnerships, project funding or inquiries, email us at [email protected] or contact us directly through our Facebook and Instagram accounts!

We’ve come this far. Help us stitch the film together. We’re launching a crowdfunding campaign for “Sew It Seams,” a live action short film directed by Che Tagyamon and produced by HYPERFOCUS. At its core, the film confronts the exhaustion and violence of constant productivity, and the threads that keep us going even as our right to rest slips away. We successfully wrapped the first day of principal photography in a home-based sewing room in Quezon City. As we embark into the next two days this April, we look to all of you for support. For more information, you can send us a direct message or email us at [email protected]. PLEASE SEWPPORT US AND SEW THIS STORY WITH US! Link in bio! 🧵

Another successful film screening for the books! 🌠 Nothing compares to the energy of a full house when the cinema is open to everyone, and we are so grateful to everyone who shared the space with us! 💗 A massive thank you to the people who made this all possible: To our eight women filmmakers (@mmvmina , @lotlotreveries , @pom__bun , @_metromaria , @_somesam , @mickeylai23 , @chetagyamon and @cesariojoanne ), for trusting us with your craft and for braving every storm to get your vision on screen. We walk away changed by the stories you chose to tell. To Sir EJ Fontamillas of (@themillas.hostel.cafe ), for providing an incredible cinema experience with great food and coffee to match! To Jason Liwag (@jaseybel ), for your constant support behind the scenes and for expertly moderating the Q&A! To our extended HF family, Mirs (@hwasaak ) for being a stellar host, and Ed (@seradotexe ) for helping keep the tech running flawlessly. And of course, a special shoutout to our HF member, Carla (@isleofhues ), for spearheading this wonderful event! ✨ From day one, our goal is to shine a light on important films that demand to be seen and discussed. Beyond the calendar, women’s stories are the lens, and the future of everything we screen. Again, Happy Women’s Month! Keep an eye out on our next events! 👀

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. Joanne Cesario’s “Neither Here Nor There But Just As Important” was initially created as a 5-channel video installation and as an expansion of her earlier short film “Here, Here” (2020). It has since been presented in international art exhibitions and screening programs such as Objectifs’ Women in Film and Photography in Singapore, Serendipity Arts Festival in India, and the Angkor Photo Festival Open Programme in Cambodia. Catch this short film on Sunday, March 22, 5 PM at The Millas Hostel and Cafe alongside a lineup of other powerful shorts by and for women. ✨ Get free entry when you show a receipt from anything you buy at the café! Scan the QR code or click the link in our bio to RSVP! 🌠

A female Chinese trainee is delegated to lead her multiracial female comrades in a Malaysia National Service Camp against the backdrop of Malay-Muslim traditions. “WAShhh” by Malaysian director Mickey Lai premiered at the Locarno Film Festival under the Concorso Cineasti del presente section and has since been showcased in various film festivals where it also received honors, including the top short film prize at the Alternativa Film and Awards Festival and the SeaShorts Competition Award. Catch this short film on Sunday, March 22, 5 PM at The Millas Hostel and Cafe alongside a lineup of other powerful shorts by and for women. ✨ Get free entry when you show a receipt from anything you buy at the café! Scan the QR code or click the link in our bio to RSVP! 🌠

Mila struggles as she remains unpaid at work and a love interest becomes a source of comfort through his constant phone calls. But a promise of hope may also lead to tragedy and sad love songs. “Cross My Heart and Hope to Die,” directed by Sam Manacsa, has screened in over 100 international film festivals, including its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival (Orizzonti Competition), and has received multiple awards across the globe, including Best Short Film at Cinemalaya, ​PÖFF Shorts and the New York Asian Film Festival. Catch this short film on Sunday, March 22, 5 PM at The Millas Hostel and Cafe alongside a lineup of other powerful shorts by and for women. ✨ Get free entry when you show a receipt from anything you buy at the café! Scan the QR code or click the link in our bio to RSVP! 🌠

A young woman goes back to her province in the countryside where she gets to once again meet her distant grandmother, who is a senile Christmas lantern artisan, only to unearth her innermost secrets and wartime experiences. “Lola Loleng” is Che Tagyamon’s undergraduate thesis film at the UP Film Institute in 2016. It has since garnered accolades internationally and screened in various countries such as Switzerland, Brazil, Spain, Singapore, Germany and South Korea, among others. Catch this animated short film on Sunday, March 22, 5 PM at The Millas Hostel and Cafe alongside a lineup of other powerful shorts by and for women. ✨ Get free entry when you show a receipt from anything you buy at the café! Scan the QR code or click the link in our bio to RSVP! 🌠

Piano, the young production manager on a film set, gets lumbered with the job of keeping the set dry by planting lemongrass upside-down underneath an open sky. “Lemongrass Girl” directed by Pom Bunsermvicha has won numerous awards across Southeast Asia and internationally, highlighting its unique blend of documentary and fiction. It premiered in competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and was showcased at other major festivals, including BFI London Film Festival and Festival du Nouveau Cinéma. Catch this short film on Sunday, March 22, 5 PM at The Millas Hostel and Cafe alongside a lineup of other powerful shorts by and for women. ✨ Get free entry when you show a receipt from anything you buy at the café! Scan the QR code or click the link in our bio to RSVP! 🌠

Forced to flee Gaza, two Filipino-Palestinian mothers recount their repatriation journey to the Philippines and attempt to recreate the concept of home in a land both foreign and familiar. “The River Flows in Different Places” won FDCP’s Films for Peace short film competition in 2025 and has been named among the Top 21 Films of 2025 by Rolling Stone PH. Directed by Lot-lot Hermosura, the film is described as a family diary and a collection of intimate interviews, personal photographs, home videos, and illustrations that reflect cultural duality, the search for belonging, and resistance through remembering. Catch this short film on Sunday, March 22, 5 PM at The Millas Hostel and Cafe alongside a lineup of other powerful shorts by and for women. ✨ Get free entry when you show a receipt from anything you buy at the café! Scan the QR code or click the link in our bio to RSVP! 🌠

A dictator’s son revises history, a girl cuts her nails at night. He wins the presidency, her personal history is revised.​ “Maybe I’m Unlucky Because I Cut My Nails at Night” is the third of three short films commissioned by Los Otros Films with support from Asian Artist Moving Image Platform. In this experimental short, Maria Estela Paiso evokes the historical erasure of Philippine history under the rule of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and, later, his son, by making subjects vanish from her personal photos, like ghosts. Catch this experimental short film on Sunday, March 22, 5 PM at The Millas Hostel and Cafe alongside a lineup of other powerful shorts by and for women. ✨ Get free entry when you show a receipt from anything you buy at the café! Link in bio to RSVP! 🌠