Catalogue > At random

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.

Joanne Cesario grew up in the Province of Batangas and moved to Metro Manila to pursue film studies at the University of the Philippines. Both her childhood experiences and political undertakings have deeply shaped her beliefs and sensibilities. Working across film, publication, and photography since 2013, she melds personal and collective histories on labor, female identity, and ever-shifting landscapes and spaces. In 2020, her first professional short film 'Here, Here' was selected to the Pardi di domani Competition of the Locarno Film Festival and was awarded with the Special Jury Prize at the 68th FAMAS Awards in the Philippines.