Time is not a neutral presence in the films collected for this program. At times, it distorts perception; at times, it erases truths; sometimes, it acts as a trap. If we are to watch each film closely, time can be considered a restless force, always in motion and usually reveals our fears which we always want to stay away from.
 

‘samtang naghulat ko nga maakoa ka…’ lingers in the quiet ache of unspoken love with its still photographs freezing fleeting moments of longing. Here, time is an accumulation of glances, building a narrative from what remains unsaid. In ‘Indigo’, time is far less passive. A cubicle opens a door to the past, immersing its protagonist in the turbulent history of student activism. By revisiting decades of struggle, the film reminds us that historical memory is not fixed but can be reclaimed when present truths are under siege.
 

The idea of rewriting the past extends into ‘The Repetition of Love’, wherein a poet is urged to revisit her unfinished work. In her search for the missing final line, she discovers that memory and creativity are bound by what we choose to remember and if we decide to conceal these memories. In ‘In Half’, the journey inward is just as significant as the passage of time itself. A man caught in the prison of his fears enters a dreamlike realm where he must confront visions of his past. Time certainly connects what was before and what is to be.
 

Some encounters with time are measured in moments rather than years. ‘Cut the Tie’ uses dance to embody the gradual unbinding from a destructive relationship with the self. ‘Stopclock’ takes the simple irritation of a dripping tap and twists it into an unexpected confrontation with time’s unsettling elasticity.
 

The remaining works explore time as a threshold where the familiar turn into the macabre. ‘Isang Gabing Nawala ang Diyos’ begins in the innocence of Christmas Eve but shifts into something darker when a child meets an intruder. ‘Caraingin’ ends the program as a film that races against time wherein a young journalist’s assignment to document traditional dishes becomes a countdown towards stranger events that threatens to consume her and her camerman.
 

Time is beyond just a backdrop in all these films. It is an active participant in every story, capable of preserving love or eroding it, of revealing truth or burying it. When enjoying these fictional and fantastical horror films, time absolutely demands our attention.