Fathers of Circumstances Film Program Coming to UP Film Center on June 20-21, 2025

What makes a father? Is it blood, presence, choice—or circumstance? This June, Fathers of Circumstances brings together five deeply moving films from Japan and the Philippines that challenge conventional ideas of fatherhood.  

Coming to Cine Adarna, UPFI Film Institute in UP Diliman, the screenings on June 20 and 21, 2025 will be followed by talkbacks, including guest appearances and more. Tickets are free with pre-registration now open: https://forms.gle/bdvrevACRDbqWPq77 . Walk-ins are also welcome, subject to seat availability.

Curated by Eunice Helera, a film programmer and festival coordinator. The program is part of the Professional Development and Networking Initiative for ASEAN-Japan Film Programmers and Curators, organized by the Japan Foundation in partnership with the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF). The lineup features: 

• Like Father, Like Son (2013) by Hirokazu Kore-eda 
• Dear Etranger (2017) by Yukiko Mishima 
• Close-Knit (2017) by Naoko Ogigami 
• Kinakausap ni Celso ang Diyos (2024) by Gilb Baldoza
• Ang Tatay Kong Nanay (1978) by Lino Brocka

These films span across class, gender, and kinship—offering a spectrum of what it means to care, provide, and stay. 

Kore-eda’s exploration of fatherhood from both affluent and working-class perspectives finds resonance in Baldoza’s Filipino fathers, who may lack money but never intention. In Mishima’s Dear Etranger, the longing to be accepted as a stepfather is quiet and piercing. In Close-Knit and Ang Tatay Kong Nanay, it is a transgender woman and a gay man who step into the role of parent—not through biology, but through pure will and love.

“This program is deeply personal,” Helera shares. “I never got to fully experience the
love of my biological father, who passed three years ago. What I’ve carried since is grief,
longing, and the imagination of what could have been. But I was raised by other father
figures—my stepdad, who silently cheered me on since grade school. My grandfather,
who filled in whenever no one else could. Two uncles, one of whom became a mentor
who shaped the path I’m now walking. And a queer aunt who showed up with fierce

loyalty and care.”

Organized by Japan Foundation and Elevated Frames PH, In partnership with UP Film Institute and he Film Development Council of the Philippines.