In-person: Q&A with filmmaker Kayla Abuda Galang

Admission is free. No advance reservations. Free tickets must be obtained on a first come, first served basis at the box office, where seating will be assigned.
 

When You Left Me On That Boulevard

U.S., 2023

It’s Thanksgiving in 2006 and Ly’s day consists of phone calls with her boyfriend, getting high with her cousins, and celebrating the holiday with her nosy family. A tender portrayal of suburban life with a Filipino family, about coming together while on the outside. Winner of the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

DCP, color, 13 min. Director: Kayla Abuda Galang. Screenwriter: Kayla Abuda Galang. With: Kailyn Dulay, Whitney Agustin, Gina May Gimongala.
 

Cleaners

Philippines, 2019

“Cleaners explores these things with a handcrafted, rough-around-the-edges, deeply personal nostalgia. I love that it wears its retrospection on its sleeve and has so much love for its characters while giving them the room to flail around like teenagers do (sometimes in gross, shocking ways I don’t really see in the West)!”—Kayla Abuda Galang

From young love thwarted by pregnancy to a class project that takes a serious turn, to a very unfortunate moment on stage, Cleaners eagerly follows the lives of teenagers in 2007 that are connected by the pressure of being pure or clean. Told in a series of vignettes, it combines a striking visual approach—where the film has been shot, printed out to look like photocopies, hand colored, and then rescanned—with a charged soundtrack that taps into a chaotic and emotional core. The result is a frenetic experience, fueled with energy, that expertly captures the essence of being a young adult and highlights a unique voice in independent cinema. And like all good awkward coming-of-age films, it packs some absurd situations that will be sure to cause some discomfort.

DCP, b&w and color, 78 min. Director: Glenn Barit. Screenwriter: Glenn Barit. With: Ianna Taguinod, Leomar Baloran, Julian Narag.

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