This study investigates how selected Filipino films construct distinct “disaster aesthetics” that articulate the nation’s encounters with calamity, trauma, and collective recovery. Positioned within a country repeatedly marked by typhoons, earthquakes, conflict, and socio-environmental crises, Philippine cinema has developed visual and narrative strategies that differ from mainstream global disaster-film conventions. Through close textual and aesthetic analysis of films such as Taklub, Anak Dalita, Bisperas, Oro, and hybrid documentary-fiction works, this study examines how filmmakers mobilize imagery of ruin, fragmented storytelling, and immersive soundscapes to capture the affective weight of disaster. These aesthetic choices not only dramatize catastrophe but also foreground the emotional and moral complexities of survival. The analysis further explores how these films reflect, critique, or reimagine Filipino cultural notions of katatagan, bayanihan, ginahawa, and the concept of vulnerability. By interrogating the tension between spectacle and ethical representation, the study assesses how filmmakers negotiate the demand for dramatic visual impact while maintaining respect for real communities who live through such crises. Philippine disaster aesthetics, as this research argues, do not merely replicate global tropes; instead, they localize and transform them through hybrid forms—such as docu-fiction, slow cinema, horror-inflected realism, and surrealist symbolism—that mirror the country’s social and cultural landscapes. Ultimately, this study positions Philippine disaster films as critical cultural texts that document lived experiences while offering alternative imaginaries of community, agency, and recovery. In doing so, it highlights how disaster aesthetics in Philippine cinema contribute to broader conversations on ethics, representation, and the politics of vulnerability.

Authors:
Leomar Requejo, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippines

About the Presenter(s)
Leomar P. Requejo is an Assistant Professor IV at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, where he serves as the Chief of the Forecasting, Early Warning, and Dissemination Section of its Disaster Resilience Institute.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule

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