Keyword Overseas Foreign Workers

In this magical movie, an overseas Filipino worker named Badong Bulaong (Robin Padilla) returns in the country after working in the Middle East. Upon his arrival, he was swindled of his belongings and was only left with a bottle he picked up in Saudi as a souvenir. To top it all, he discovered that his girlfriend has fallen in love with a basketball player. In his despair, he threw the bottle to the wall and from there came out a genie named Jeannie (Judy Ann Santos). And just like in fairy tales, he was entitled to three wishes.

This documentary from Min Sook Lee follows a poverty-stricken father from Central Mexico, along with several of his countrymen, as they make their annual migration to southern Ontario to pick tomatoes. For 8 months a year, the town's population absorbs 4,000 migrant workers who toil under conditions, and for wages, that no local would accept. Yet despite a fear of repercussions, the workers voice their desire for dignity and respect.

Closer to Home weaves a universal, haunting tale of two people inexorably drawn together for vastly different reasons. Dalisay struggles to journey from the Philippine countryside to New York City to marry Dean, a disillusioned ex-merchant marine. She's hoping to buy a cure for her dying sister and, ultimately, a future for her debt-ridden family, while he hopes to escape his disintegrating American family through love and a family of his own. A powerful, controversial film that quietly builds to a shattering collision of aspirations and cultures.

Alternating Philippines and Saudi Arabia as her home, the filmmaker uses personal home videos and present footage to tell the story of her family.