Ritz Cinemas

"A wild ’n rowdy ode to a cinema seemingly lost forever: the Philippines’ silent-film production." – Olaf Möller

Indefinable and irrepressible renegade Filipino filmmaker Khavn De La Cruz is back - not that he ever left - with a crazed homage to early Filipino genre silent film in Nitrate: To the Ghosts of the 75 Lost Philippine Silent Films (1912-1933). As the title suggests, Nitrate uses images from remaining archival materials of early Filipino film production to construct a multi-colour fever dream: a kaleidoscopic trip through eerily familiar yet unseen horror films in which your memories have the texture of nightmares. Commissioned by celebrated Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Khavn’s latest entry in an already vast body of work is an effort towards preserving and enlivening an important chapter in Filipino cinema heritage. Presented alongside a program of Khavn’s earlier shorts.

Content warning: contains strobing

FFFA is stoked to be working with Dogmilk to bring the latest work by the father of Filipino digital filmmaking to Australia.

See more of Khavn’s work, presented by Dogmilk, at Miscellania in the Melbourne CBD.