Online screenings run from December 10-20, 2025 | Philippine Launch on December 10, 2:00 PM at UPFI Videotheque
Quezon City, Philippines — In commemoration of International Human Rights Day, Cinemata presents Rising Waters, Raising Rights: Human Rights Through the Lens of Water, a thematic film program that explores human rights in relation to water as survival, environment, memory, livelihood, and resistance. The online screening runs from December 10 to 20, 2025, and will be accompanied by a Philippine kickoff launch on December 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM at the UPFI Videotheque, co-organized with Film Workers Against Corruption and Elevated Frames PH, in partnership with Kinoise PH and Laya Coffee Diliman, with UPFI Film Center as the official venue partner.
The Philippine edition of the program is curated by Eunice Helera, bringing together short films and documentaries that look at water not only as a natural resource, but as a political, cultural, and emotional force shaping everyday struggles. The program surfaces stories of coastal labor, climate vulnerability, displacement, queer becoming, cultural memory, and community resistance.
In addition to the online screenings, the Philippine edition will also feature physical and community-based screenings to be announced, which will be mounted across partner venues and organizations within the December 10–20, 2025 screening window.
Three Currents of the Philippine Edition
The Philippine edition flows through three interconnected thematic programs:
Sinking Grounds: Climate, Flood, and Survival — films on environmental destruction, flooding, displacement, and everyday adaptation.
Tides of Silence: Queer Currents and Mermaid Longings — stories of queer identity, psychological violence, longing, myth, and becoming.
Fisherfolk & Frontlines: Labor and Livelihood at Risk — narratives of coastal communities, maritime labor, ancestral waters, and survival under economic and ecological pressure.
Together, these three currents form a national portrait of how water binds together personal, environmental, political, and cultural realities.
Decentralized Screenings, Community Conversations
Beyond the online screenings on Cinemata, the program will adopt a decentralized hosting structure. Partner film collectives, community organizations, academic institutions, and grassroots groups across the country will adopt one or two thematic sections to hold onsite or online watch parties, followed by talkbacks, Q&A sessions, and facilitated discussions.
This approach allows different communities to interpret each film through their own local contexts while remaining part of a unified national and regional conversation on human rights.
Organizations, institutions, and even DIY film clubs who wish to mount a free community watch party are encouraged to join and may coordinate directly with the organizing team via email.
Philippine Kickoff Launch at UPFI
The Philippine launch will take place on December 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM at the UPFI Videotheque, co-organized with Film Workers Against Corruption, with partners Kinoise PH and Laya Coffee Diliman, and UPFI Film Center as venue partner. The launch will feature selected film screenings from the program, followed by an opening conversation on cinema, water, and human rights in the Philippine context.
For the Malaysian Launch
Following the Philippine kickoff, Rising Waters, Raising Rights will extend to Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia, with the regional edition set to launch on December 13, 2025, curated by Malaysian programmer Nadira Ilana.
The Malaysian programs will be presented under the following thematic sections:
Drifting States: Statelessness and Migration — communities without citizenship, refugees, and displaced people crossing literal and political waters.
Sinking Grounds: Climate, Flood, and Survival — environmental crises, rising seas, and everyday resilience.
Tides of Silence: Bullying, Violence, and the Self — psychological violence, discrimination, and the invisible wounds of social cruelty.
Fisherfolk & Frontlines: Labor and Livelihood at Risk / Women & The Sea — coastal labor, fisherfolk survival, and women’s relationship to the sea.
Audiences in the Philippines will also be able to watch the selected films through the same online screening platform during the December 10–20 window, strengthening regional dialogue across shared waters and struggles.