Hello, I'm JT, a Bachelor of Arts in Film student from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
I’m finally graduating. It has been five years since I entered film school. Entering my dream university was surreal for an 18-year-old kid from the outskirts of Manila. Pursuing filmmaking as a program was not usual for underprivileged students who didn’t have money to pay for private universities. Even my parents didn’t want me to take film. Yet, I worked hard, with the help of many, to prove that it was possible.When I entered film school, I only had a dream. My friends and I randomly made a one-minute film. It went viral, unexpectedly.
A film about family queer acceptance had millions of views across social media without having any intentions for it to go viral. We were young kids who wanted to experience what a film festival feels like, and five years later, I’m set to make my thesis.
I’m ending my film school journey with another film about queer kids. “Honey, My Love, So Sweet.” is about Life, an androgynous nine-year-old boy who loves cinema and discovers his identity in a demolishing cinema. Coming from personal experiences of displacement and discovering identity, I want to end my university life by making a statement about queer kids so that no one would experience what many of us did.