ACTIVE VISTA HUMAN RIGHTS FESTIVAL 2025
FILM CATALOGUE
20/20 SCREENINGS
Active Vista presents a cinematic experience that unveils revelations challenging our visual acuity. In our 20/20 vision, we summon narratives of diverse hues and tales lingering at the edges of our perception, inviting us to perceive the world with newfound clarity, akin to a revelation. We extend our awareness to those in the periphery, offering a sharpened and crystalline perspective, fostering a profound depth of perception, and ultimately, viewing the world through the compassionate lens of humanity.
Magellan
by Lav Diaz | The Philippines’ official entry to the 98th Academy Awards
A portrayal of Ferdinand Magellan and Beatriz Barbosa's 1517 marriage in Seville, focusing on their brief time together before his departure on the Spanish crown's expedition.
I’m Still Here by Walter Salles
October 4, 2025 | 3:00PM
UPFI Film Center
FREE ADMISSION
Food Delivery: Fresh From the West Philippine Sea by Baby Ruth Villarama
October 4, 2025 | 6:00PM
UPFI Film Center
PhP250.00 Regular
PhP200.00 Student, PWD and Senior Citizen
CLASSICS
Aswang
by Alyx Arumpac
When Rodrigo Duterte is voted president of the Philippines, he sets in motion a machinery of death to execute suspected drug peddlers, users, and small-time criminals. Aswang follows people whose fates entwine with the growing violence during two years of killings in Manila.
Delikado
by Karl Malakunas
DELIKADO follows environmental defenders Bobby and Tata of the Palawan NGO Network Inc and former El Nido mayor Nieves. They risk their lives in David versus Goliath-style struggles, stopping politicians and businessmen from destroying the Philippines’ “last ecological frontier”.
11,103
by Jeannette Ifurung and Mike Alcazaren
A documentary featuring survivor stories of state-sponsored violence during the Martial Law years of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
FRAMES
Active Vista features short films that tell revealing stories on different frames of human struggles.
FRAMES: Filipino Short Film Competition
This year’s Active Vista Human Rights Festival: TRESE proudly presents the selected films of FRAMES, our short film competition platform amplifying new voices that confront the urgencies of our time revealing stories on different frames of human struggles.
Climate Story Lab
After a year of development and creation, the four grantees of the Climate Story Lab are finally ready for their first screening!
Tipping the Scales
Southeast Asian Short Films Exhibition and Discussion
You are invited to Tipping the Scales and discover Southeast Asia through its cinema and find in its stories echoes of our own.
VIEWPOINTS
Festival Forums
Active Vista presents Viewpoints, a series of forums and dialogues that complement the thematic film screenings of the festival. Here, issues are presented and dissected through the lens of various perspectives, allowing the audience to participate in dynamic ways of seeing the narratives in the broader societal context and perspectives, and in the moving images that project truths on the important global issues.
Empty Closets | On Queer Liberation
To be queer is to live in defiance of closets imposed by fear and prejudice. This forum gathers narratives of love, survival, and resistance, reminding us that queer stories are not margins, but essential threads of our collective fight for human rights.
Ain’t I A Woman? | On Women’s Empowerment
Women’s bodies and voices have long been sites of struggle, contested, and controlled, yet continually resisting. This forum listens to stories that challenge patriarchy and affirm women’s place at the center of shaping just and equal futures.
Not on Our Watch | On Freedom of Expression
When art, media, and dissent are suppressed, democracy itself is under siege. This forum spotlights stories of courage from those who dare to speak truth to power, affirming that the freedom to create and express cannot, and must not, be silenced.
The Fires We Inherit | On Labor
Workers have long borne the weight of exploitation, precarity, and inequality. From factory floors to picket lines, their struggles blaze a path toward dignity and rights. This forum reflects on labor’s unfinished battles and the collective fires we must carry forward.
One Death is Too Many | On Extra-Judicial Killings
The war on drugs has left thousands of families grieving and countless voices silenced. But every life taken is one too many. Through film and dialogue, this forum confronts the narratives that justified violence and asks how to resist forgetting, preserve truth, and seek justice.
Grasping at the Root | On Climate Justice
Climate disasters are not curses; they are consequences of greed, negligence, and systemic failure. This forum digs deep into the roots of the environmental crisis, centering communities who resist destruction and reimagine futures where both people and planet can thrive.
Ghosts of Future Past | On Martial Law
Southeast Asian Short Films Exhibition and Discussion
This year’s Active Vista Human Rights Festival: TRESE calls you to gather, remember, and resist, through powerful films that confront the haunting legacies of Martial Law.