Hum
Hum
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
In a misty mountain town, Esme, a young veterinary student, volunteers in her university to help treat injured farm animals. While soothing a dying horse, she suddenly feels a deep sense of connection with the animal – as if she had heard its dying words. As she ponders on her newfound ability, Esme alongside her friends, Toma, Dallas, Sonny, and Imo, finds solace in the abandoned remains of an unfinished rodeo stadium. Inside those broken walls, strange things occur: rain falls indoors, plants grow in unusual shapes, lights flicker without electricity, and time itself seems to move at a surreal pace. Wild animals roam the untouched gardens of this stadium, where their noises echo within the concrete walls – here, Esme once more recognizes that she can somehow understand what the animals are trying to say.
As Esme and her friends find refuge in the magical walls of the stadium, their fragile reverie is shattered when the police capture a wild man in the forest. The cops call him Adan. He can’t speak in their local language – only in bizarre animal sounds. He is unkempt, naked, and has been living in the forest for many years. The police investigate his existence, yet his cryptic animal behavior urges them to recruit the help of the university where Esme works at. This inevitably pulls Esme as one of the students assisting the professors in conducting research, interrogations and studies on the mysterious man. Now, Esme embarks on a journey of understanding her unique ability of decoding the animal language, building her own dictionary of animal sounds that she uses to help unlock the mysterious language that Adan uses so she can finally speak to him. Her search for truth takes her on a path that is both sacred and terrifying, realizing that her destiny is linked to Adan’s existence. As she gets closer to him, she learns that Adan is a harmless being – only a divine messenger from the forest to warn humans that the earth is dying and that an earthquake will strike soon. So Esme, together with her friends, do their best to warn their community and lead them to survival.
Film/Moving Image, Narrative Film
2026
About Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Chicago, IL
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan is an indigenous-Filipino filmmaker, musician, and designer whose works explore themes of trauma, spirituality and nature told through the cosmic lens of indigenous identities. Subverting genres such as westerns, crime films, and family dramas, Eblahan often seeks to decipher old cinematic languages in order to articulate the modern condition of Filipino youth living in hyper-industrialized postcolonial spaces. His films have premiered in film festivals around the world: Hilum (2021) won the Student Prize at Clermont-Ferrand; The Headhunter’s Daughter (2022) was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance; and Cold Cut (2024), which premiered in Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight section. His latest short film Vox Humana (2024), a proof of concept for his debut feature Hum, had its world premiere in TIFF and later won the Gold Hugo at Chicago International and the Best Short Film at FNC Montreal. He is currently developing his first feature film, Hum, a project selected for the Festival de Cannes Cinefondation Residence program, Berlinale Script Station, Locarno Filmmakers Academy and Sundance Institute’s Native Lab. As Eblahan develops future film works, he also writes music as a composer and works as a graphic designer in the Midwestern United States.
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan is an indigenous-Filipino filmmaker, musician, and designer whose works explore themes of trauma, spirituality and nature told through the cosmic lens of indigenous identities. Subverting genres such as westerns, crime films, and family dramas, Eblahan often seeks to decipher old cinematic languages in order to articulate the modern condition of Filipino youth living in hyper-industrialized postcolonial spaces. His films have premiered in film festivals around the world: Hilum (2021) won the Student Prize at Clermont-Ferrand; The Headhunter’s Daughter (2022) was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance; and Cold Cut (2024), which premiered in Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight section. His latest short film Vox Humana (2024), a proof of concept for his debut feature Hum, had its world premiere in TIFF and later won the Gold Hugo at Chicago International and the Best Short Film at FNC Montreal. He is currently developing his first feature film, Hum, a project selected for the Festival de Cannes Cinefondation Residence program, Berlinale Script Station, Locarno Filmmakers Academy and Sundance Institute’s Native Lab. As Eblahan develops future film works, he also writes music as a composer and works as a graphic designer in the Midwestern United States.