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Minikino Film Week 11 – KCrush Interview with ‘Water Sports’ Producer Alemberg M. Ang

November 17, 2025 | 27 Visits

Disclaimer: Some of the topics discussed would be mature and provocative in theme – the topics discussed are mature in nature.

 

Award winning production designer, writer and director Whammy Alcazaren (Bold Eagle, Whether the Weather is Fine) is a creative not afraid to push boundaries in his visual and narrative storytelling, and his 2025 short film Water Sports, which screened at Minikino Film Week 11 in Denpasar, Bali, is no exception.

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In this visually unique and provocative film, two highschoolers, Ipe played by Elijah Canlas (Sunshine, Gameboys) and his boyfriend Jelson played by John Renz Javier (The Gospel of the Beast) are faced with the existential thought of what finding and holding onto love means at the end of the world. Though this is a narrative that has been explored countless times in other films, shows, and books, Whammy takes things a step further than most by focusing the story on two queer young men and their friends bravely facing their imminent doom in a Philippines washed in shocking shades of orange, yellow, and reds from the blazing sun beating down on an earth with no protective layers of atmosphere to provide a barrier from the scorching irradiated heat, and the irony that the very thing they and the earth are in desperate need of the most, water, will be their very destruction in the form of a tsunami.

Stranded in an isolated, crumbling school with no running water, an empty pool, and a teacher (Ricky Davao) showing no interest in his students, Ipe and Jelson both have deep conversations with each other, their few remaining classmates, and themselves about what’s the purpose of romantic and platonic love and relationships when the end to everything has already been determined and is fast approaching.

Water Sports is a short film that effectively uses what seem to be absurd visual tricks, vignettes, a score that can’t quite be followed, and unpredictable editing styles and scene transitions by filmmaker Carlos Francisco Manatad–or whose 2021 disaster feature film Whether the Weather is Fine, Whammy won multiple awards for his production design–to convey the chaotic reality being lived by these characters.

I use the word “seem”, because at first the editing and production design of the school and environment seem sort of haphazard, but with time it fairly obvious to anyone who spends a significant amount of time on social media, that all of the elements, perfectly capture the current state of the internet as it is now. So much of what we consume visually and audibly consists of fast moving images, reels, thoughts and sped up streams on consciousness, that over time it all just melds into an almost overwhelming and crashing down on you in cacophony of noise, emotions, and colours, much like the world ending tsunami forecasted to soon arrive.

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Whammy being able to interpret all of this so concisely and correlate it to the film’s overarching theme of climate change, environmental conservation, queer identity, and teen angst is quite brilliant. Oh, and I can’t forget the religious context which is presented in many overt and subliminal ways. With Catholicism being the main religion in the Philippines since the arrival of the Spanish to the islands and their subsequent colonization, there’s no avoiding…or perhaps escaping might be a more apt term, the discussion of queer love in the context of religious conservatism and the guilt that stems from being taught that who you are and who you love is seen as a mortal sin that could cause you eternal damnation.

But as Jelson and Ipe ponder, if they’re existing in a world that’s been damned through the negligence of those who had the power to avert environmental destruction, what’s the point is denying oneself comfort and love in a world already literally on fire?

Whammy’s years as a production designer with a fine eye to getting every small detail right, come through very clearly in every scene of Water Sports. Every set piece serves a purpose and tells us what he’s thinking of and trying to convey to audiences. For the casting he wanted all of the young male actors to look alike and have similar body structures and makeup to encourage audiences to think about what facades teenage boys and young men are expected to project even as they’re facing mental and existential challenges.

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In My KCrush interview with producer Alemberg M. Ang (Bold Eagle) at Minikino, we discussed a variety of topics including Alemberg’s process of give and take working with a filmmaker who has a very specific vision in and working to supporting that vision for a film like Water Sports, what makes the casting choices unique, and how audiences could perceive and interpret the provocative themes in the film that could be uncomfortable for some.

*All images courtesy of Dalyuyong Studios.

One interesting tidbit is that the name of Alemberg’s production company is Dalyuyong which means “large tidal waves that can be as massive as a tsunami” in Tagalog.

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