Nick Deocampo

When an exhibit opening is suddenly called off, a young art copyist and a studio owner spend the afternoon wandering the gallery grounds, striking up an awkward, candid conversation that subtlely shifts how both see their lives.

This is the life story of Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, a Chinese-Filipina nun who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Religious of the Virgin Mary.

Interweaving lives of LGBT personalities compose this documentary about the struggles and hopes of a queer community living in the country’s premiere city.

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.

A historian travels through time from the swampland that one day turned into the squalor that it has become in contemporary time.

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 performer called toro. 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 Cesar Hernando's noirish short, the uprising and UFOs are merged in a strange commentary on government control.

Film: American Beginnings of Philippine Cinema is the second episode in Deocampo's evolving saga of the country's history of Philippine cinema. Based on his recent book, Film: American Influences on Philippine Cinema, this 3D-animated documentary ventures from Escolta through Avenida as we discover how film came to be in the Philippines.

A documentary about a gay nightclub performer with an especially lurid "Spider-man" act. Oliver is a female impersonator who supports his family by performing in Manila's gay bars.

A collection of video documentaries that trace, through the major periods of Philippines history, the evolution of the seven arts in the country: architecture, dance, literature, film, theater, music and visual arts. Written and directed by renowned scholars and artists in the country, the documentaries illustrate the importance of arts and culture in creating a Filipino national consciousness and identity and in nation-building.

Shot during Deocampo’s year as a scholar in France under Atelier du Formacion Au Cinema Direct. His first documentary provides a glimpse of three Filipino painters residing in Europe: Nena Saguil, Macario Vitalis, and Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi. The featured artists commentate on their daily practices as artists and migrants, all uniting at the end for an intimate gathering.

With interviews with National Artists Lamberto Avellana and Lino Brocka and myriad talents from the Mowelfund community such as Nick Deocampo and Raymond Red, Beyond Mainstream documents the robust energy of nascent independent filmmaking in the country in the 80s. Based on Nick Deocampo's first book Short Film: The Emergence of a New Philippine Cinema (1985), it features the first Independent Film and Video Festival held in the Wave Cinema in Cubao, Quezon City, the first video theater in the country.

A documentary film, which focuses on the subject of women’s movement in the Philippines. Myth and legend overlap with history and politics as the women’s struggle is laid to bear in the individual stories and achievements of those featured in the film. The fragmented mosaic of voices and scenes allow for a plurality of views and opinions to account for the multifaceted and complex nature of Filipinas. From poetry to dance, politics to poetry – women chart their own lives in the auspicious event of change happening with the ascent of a woman to the country’s pinnacle of power.

A family witnesses the transformation of their garbage into a monster.

Based on a painting by Rembrandt, “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” the film is a meditation on the complex relations between fathers and sons. In two parallel stories, a son’s desire to be free is shown as he struggles from his father’s oppressive domination. This is shown on the one hand by a boy who watches over his father in his sickbed wishing to free himself from his father’s domineering presence; and on the other, a biblical Isaac who frees himself from Abraham’s intent to kill his own son.

Based on Nick Deocampo's award-winning book, Cine: Spanish Influences on Early Cinema in the Philippines, this digital documentary traces the beginning of cinema in the Philippines in 1897 when two Spaniards showed the first moving pictures in Escolta. Against the backdrop of war and revolution, film developed to become the emerging Filipinos' dominant form of public entertainment. The documentary further explores the elements of Spanish culture found in Filipino films as evidenced through the classic films made by three National Artists - Eddie Romero, Lino Brocka, and Ishmael Bernal. This is Deocampo's homage both to Philippine cinema and the Filipino nation that is its twin.

A candid story about a Filipino transvestite who works in Japan’s entertainment center in order to support his family. In the daytime, Joan attends to his daily training to prepare him for work as entertainer in Japan. At night, he works as one of the female impersonators in Manila’s gay bars. All these to feed a family of eighteen. Although it will be Joan’s fourth trip to Japan, he still finds it hard to make as much money to make their lives better. Meeting other gay entertainers in the bar where he works, they talk about the difficulties Filipino entertainers experience while working in Japan. The situation is no different though from the life lived by someone like Joan in the Philippines who was once caught in a drug bust operation and sent to jail. Threats and difficulties seem to hound these sex warriors wherever they go.

Nick Deocampo looks into the life of Filipino visual artist Victorio C. Edades. Recognized as the father of Philippine modernism, Edades is known for his formative influence among local artists with strong modernist leanings. In 1976, Edades was conferred National Artist for Visual Arts for his contributions to the development of Philippine art.

Narrated by Deocampo in English, the film documents the anti-Marcos revolution, the life of Oliver (a transvestite who was the subject of the first film in the trilogy), child prostitution, and the filmmaker's own personal history, including his homosexuality, his filmmaking, and his travels abroad.

The filmmaker goes in search of his father, a former guerilla soldier who had walked out of the family a decade ago, and in the process discovers new things about himself, his family and the national legacy of war.

A comprehensive history of early cinema in the Philippines. Told in narration over 3D animation.