Busan’s Asian project market has chosen “Heaven Help Us,” a politically charged drama from Philippine director Yves Baswell. This faces the collapse of the Manila Film Centre in 1981, one of the darkest chapters in the country’s cultural history. The project was produced by John Torres, Jules Cataniag and Danzen Santos Cataniag and the team aims to secure international partners, co-production support and pre-sale in the market.
Baswell said she was forced to tell the story after linking her own experiences in the unstable workforce with workers who lost their lives while building the center. “The workers built what was meant to be an elite film festival showcase, and the Marcos administration’s alleged response was to pour cement on the victims and advance the event. Her vision focuses on systematic injustice that has put workers in a dangerous situation, rather than the supernatural narrative that has long been associated with the site.
The film constitutes itself as both drama and historical revisionism, and centers around the human cost of tragedy in rejecting sensationalism. “The dominant tales either sensationalized the event through ghost stories or allowed it to disappear into historical footnotes,” Baswell pointed out. “The film challenges a sanitized version of history that buries inconvenient truths with its victims.”
Producer John Torres said the project resonates strongly today. “Marcos is in power and we as a nation have a second chance to look into the gaps in our knowledge. This project is one of many projects that allow us to ask difficult questions about our families and the community we live in,” he said. Torres combined elements of the 1980s with current references to describe Baswell’s approach as anachronistic and poetic. “It may feel like the ’80s, but the other elements point to the present.
For producer Jules Kataniyag, the role is creative and structural. “I am Eve’s partner in unearthing ideas from a creative consciousness, helping her to question and refine the connections she makes, and guide the credibility and value of the choices she sets out to write,” Kataniyag said. “It’s about creating a safe space for discovery, while ensuring that the stories we create have both emotional truth and the power of the film.”
Danzen Santos Katanyag highlighted the project’s international ambitions. “As a producer in the Philippines, the main goal of presenting “Heaven Help” at APM is to showcase strong intercultural attractions and safe co-production partners, fundraising, sales and development support.
The producer team also highlighted the film’s potential impact. “From a producer’s perspective, ‘Heaven will help us!’ is the ability to communicate the experiences of very local, deep Filipinos, within universal themes, including faith, morality, mortality, human rights, greed, survival, and more,” Danzen said. Joule added: “We see new rage over the corruption scandal in the Philippines and around the world.
