Sci-Fi Western ‘Hum’ Heads to Tokyo Gap-Financing Market

Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan’s “Hum” is making its pitch at the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market.

After a devastating earthquake, a young veterinarian works at an evacuation center to treat injured farm animals. While caring for them, her professor discovers something extraordinary: her student can “speak” to animals. As she learns to harness this gift, she realizes that the creatures can sense and even predict aftershocks. Using this newfound connection, she helps her cowboy friends and family prepare for what’s to come. But her world is shaken once more when another person with the same ability appears… a man who police believe is responsible for causing the earthquake that destroyed their town. Upon his mysterious arrival, she attempts to unravel his mystery by interrogating him in the secret primal language that only the two of them speak.

“The film is a meditation on earthquakes, environmental disasters, and weather anomalies in the age of climate change,” Eblahan tells Variety. “It aims to examine how such natural events that seem so cosmic and out of our control are tethered to the choices we make as humans. The film is also an exploration of personal memories: dead family members, my indigenous identity, and the stewardship of the land that indigenous communities have and the corrupt forces that threaten us from doing so.”

The film was developed in the Festival de Cannes Residency, and went on to the Berlinale’s Script Station, and the Sundance Institute’s Native Lab. “We have taken the film to markets all around the world such as in Busan, Berlin, and now TIFFCOM where we are in hopes of finding co-collaborators in helping the film come to life,” Eblahan says. “Most of the challenges of the film is working on the script because it takes a lot of time to make a story so rich with lore: especially for a sci-fi western.”

“Hum” has been developed and shown at several labs, residencies, and markets, including the Festival de Cannes Residency, Locarno Academy & Residency, Sundance Native Lab, and Berlinale Script Station and Talents Project Market. “A special moment for our team is when we were awarded the ArteKino and the Sorfond Award at the [Busan] Asian Project Market, because it was our first market with this film and validated all of the work put into script development,” says producer Hannah Schierbeek. “Hum” also recently received minority co-production funding from the Polish Film Institute, which marks a big milestone in the financing journey because it was a challenge to secure the first co-production grant.

“Our participation at Busan’s Asian Project Market and the Berlinale Talents Project Market have brought in our Polish and Singapore co-producers,” says producer Alemberg Ang. “The script has also significantly changed from the first time we pitched the project to the most recent application that we have made. And it’s getting better and better.”

At the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market, the producers are excited to meet potential sales agents, distributors, financiers, and funding bodies. “We are at a stage in our development where we are now thinking critically about the set up of our production as well as the distribution and marketing of the film, and would love to meet people who can help us explore possibilities during production and beyond,” Schierbeek says.

“Working with Don and Hannah is such a dream. Don is a very gifted filmmaker and Hannah is very passionate about her work,” Ang says. “I’m quite fortunate to be working with them for Don’s past two shorts and now, in ‘Hum.’ Having received grants from the Sundance Institute, Polish Film Institute, Film Development Council of the Philippines and the Gold House, we’re hoping we close the gap in Tokyo and hopefully bring in an equity investor or sales agent to the project.”

“We hope to make a film that speaks feelings that many communities around the world can resonate with, despite this being a story that is so unique from within Don’s perspective as someone who grew up in the northern Philippines,” Schierbeek adds. “We also hope for the film to show how relevant, creative, and subversive indigenous Filipino cinema is.”

“Right now, we are mounting an Oscar campaign for Don’s short, ‘Vox Humana,’ which serves as the feature film’s proof-of-concept,” Ang says. “Hopefully, given the visibility and promotion around this, it will also help us in creating a buzz for the feature film.”

Besides “Hum,” Eblahan is currently developing two other scripts: One of them is an analog horror film about modern chess players and their relationship with computer opponents, interwoven with memories of the controversial 1978 World Chess Championship held in his hometown of Baguio during the Cold War era. And the other one is a dark fantasy re-telling of the Grimm’s “Rapunzel” set in colonial Philippines.