Directing

Rafael Manuel

Rafael Manuel is a Filipino filmmaker currently based between Amsterdam, London, and Manila. His short film 'Filipiñana' won the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the 70th Berlinale International Film Festival and was nominated for the Best British Short Film at the British Independent Film Awards 2020. Its feature-length adaptation won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the 2026 Sundance Film …

Known For

A Bird Called Memory

A Bird Called Memory · 2023

A Bird Called Memory

A bird called Memory has forgotten how to come back home. Lua, a trans woman, searches for Memory in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, but the city can be a hostile place.

Filipiñana

Filipiñana · 2020

A film about a girl drawn to a golf course.

looking she said I forget

looking she said I forget · 2024

looking she said I forget

Having just moved to Amsterdam, Lou prepares her new apartment that she will share with her partner, Joel. For now though, Joel is on a trip with an intimate other. Confronted with the complexities of her non-monogamous relationship, Lou shifts her gaze to the rhythms of her new city.

Filipiñana

Filipiñana · 2026

MovieDramaMystery

Isabel feels strangely drawn to Dr. Palanca, the president of the country club where she works. However, after piecing together a violent picture of what lies beneath the club’s pristine surface, she realizes that what began as an innocent infatuation is actually rooted in a sinister shared history.

after a room

after a room · 2021

Nights can be long inside Naomi and Ram’s room. Tonight, they have invited Marina over and their messy space is under scrutiny. Exploring intimacy as a personal playground and the skin as an intimate map, Naomi’s docile body unravels in the tension inside a room she keeps grasping and losing. The small child within her is itching to giggle through the night, before the break of day.

102 Narra

102 Narra · 2024

MovieDocumentary

Daily life unfolds in a gated community of Manila amidst birdsong, effigies of the Holy Family, lush greenery and the intricacies of class. Rafael Manuel's (co-director alongside Tatjana Fanny) intimate gaze on his own childhood home oscillates between personal and political, offering a tender yet piercing view into social and familial structures in the Philippines.

Dogeater

Maria is a Filipino maid in London who dreams of gaining British citizenship.

Filmography

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A Bird Called Memory

A Bird Called Memory · 2023

A Bird Called Memory

A bird called Memory has forgotten how to come back home. Lua, a trans woman, searches for Memory in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, but the city can be a hostile place.

Producer

Filipiñana

Filipiñana · 2020

A film about a girl drawn to a golf course.

Director

looking she said I forget

looking she said I forget · 2024

looking she said I forget

Having just moved to Amsterdam, Lou prepares her new apartment that she will share with her partner, Joel. For now though, Joel is on a trip with an intimate other. Confronted with the complexities of her non-monogamous relationship, Lou shifts her gaze to the rhythms of her new city.

Producer

Filipiñana

Filipiñana · 2026

MovieDramaMystery

Isabel feels strangely drawn to Dr. Palanca, the president of the country club where she works. However, after piecing together a violent picture of what lies beneath the club’s pristine surface, she realizes that what began as an innocent infatuation is actually rooted in a sinister shared history.

Director

after a room

after a room · 2021

Nights can be long inside Naomi and Ram’s room. Tonight, they have invited Marina over and their messy space is under scrutiny. Exploring intimacy as a personal playground and the skin as an intimate map, Naomi’s docile body unravels in the tension inside a room she keeps grasping and losing. The small child within her is itching to giggle through the night, before the break of day.

Producer

102 Narra

102 Narra · 2024

MovieDocumentary

Daily life unfolds in a gated community of Manila amidst birdsong, effigies of the Holy Family, lush greenery and the intricacies of class. Rafael Manuel's (co-director alongside Tatjana Fanny) intimate gaze on his own childhood home oscillates between personal and political, offering a tender yet piercing view into social and familial structures in the Philippines.

Director

Dogeater

Maria is a Filipino maid in London who dreams of gaining British citizenship.

Director