Disenfranchised queer grief drives David Corpuz’s return to Cinemalaya with Tayo Lang Ang Nakakaalam

# What this story covers David Corpuz returns to Cinemalaya with his solo feature Tayo Lang Ang Nakakaalam, a film that explores disenfranchised queer grief through characters living with HIV. The film grew out of material first written in 2017 and was reworked and located earlier in the decade before it reached the festival. Corpuz positions the story in medias res and leans into secrecy as a creative choice to communicate the after-effects of loss.

# Director background and trajectory Corpuz grew up in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, and discovered filmmaking while studying information technology at Don Bosco Technical College. He gravitated to experimental and arthouse cinema, regularly watching free screenings at UP Diliman's Cine Adarna. He later enrolled in UP for a master's in media studies, a program he completed over seven years and which reinforced his interest in experimental world cinema.

Corpuz's early work includes the 2014 experimental short The Ordinary Things We Do, which won a Special Jury Prize at Cinemalaya, and the 2016 co-directed feature Kusina. He co-directed the anthology Anatomiya ng Pag-ibig (2015) and made the short Read-Only Memory (2022). A planned solo feature, Seperate/Separate, was shelved during the COVID-19 pandemic, delaying his next solo outing until Tayo Lang Ang Nakakaalam.

# How the film originated and evolved The script for Tayo Lang Ang Nakakaalam was first written in 2017 and was shopped to festivals, including an attempt at Cinemalaya 2019 that only reached shortlisting. Corpuz shelved the project, then revisited it after producer Kristine Camille Sulit encouraged him to resubmit. Together with co-writer Iar Arondaing, Corpuz updated the material and moved its timeline to between 2012 and 2017 to address anachronisms.

# Themes and formal choices Tayo Lang Ang Nakakaalam examines grief that society does not recognize—grief tied to queer relationships, secrecy, and the stigma around HIV. Corpuz intentionally places the narrative in medias res and adopts an "after-the-fact" temperament. The film withholds full exposition by design, asking viewers to inhabit the emotional residue of secrecy and concealed love.

Corpuz cites Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain and Maryo J. de los Reyes's Magnifico among formative influences, both films that intersect themes of queer experience and grief. The director describes waiting for a moment when he could have full control of his vision, a factor that shaped the ten-year gestation of this solo feature.

# Casting and production note The ensemble cast includes Martin del Rosario and Miguel Odron as the central couple, with Yayo Aguila and Epy Quizon among the supporting players. Read-Only Memory's producer Kristine Camille Sulit helped bring the project back to life and shepherd it into Cinemalaya's latest edition.

# What this means in plain terms This film is a personal and deliberate effort to render private pain public: a portrait of secret love and mourning that resists tidy explanation. Corpuz's formal choices—starting in the middle of the story and keeping key details withheld—are meant to make the audience feel the ongoing, unrecognized nature of queer grief rather than resolving it for them.