‘I want to be the voice to those who can’t speak,’ is how filmmaker Carl Joseph Papa sums up his mission with ‘The Next 24 Hours,’ his latest short film competing at Cinemalaya.
Known for pushing the boundaries of Philippine animation (‘Iti Mapukpukaw,’ ‘Paglisan’), Papa this time tackles the harrowing reality of sexual assault and the silence that often follows.
The film follows Sheila, a 29-year-old woman trying to navigate the aftermath of an assault. Across just one day, she wrestles with confusion, fear, and the weight of deciding whether or not to speak up.
‘It’s about Sheila and basically what happened to her in the last 24 hours. Everything that a sexual assault victim goes through – the confusion, the fear,’ Papa explained.
The story isn’t fiction alone. ‘Part of what happened to Sheila also happened in real life, to someone really close to me,’ he admitted. ‘She knows I was inspired by her story, and she consented. She can’t speak on her own right now, so we’re using our voice for her.’
Papa sees ‘The Next 24 Hours’ as a continuation of the advocacy he began with ‘Iti Mapukpukaw,’ which also dealt with trauma and silence. ‘This is my advocacy right now,’ he said. ‘I feel like there are films talking about it, I even added to that list with ‘Iti Mapukpukaw,’ but the sad thing about it is that it’s still happening. It happens everywhere in different countries. I want to use my voice to give a voice to those who can’t speak.’
Animation – specifically rotoscope – remains his chosen medium, allowing him to approach the subject with sensitivity. ‘You need to show it in a way that wouldn’t hurt the victim,’ Papa said. ‘If you make a movie that ends up hurting the very people you’re encouraging to speak up, then what’s the point? There has to be a level of responsibility.’
For actress Christela Marquez, who plays Sheila, the weight of the role came from empathy more than direct experience.
‘Honestly, I wouldn’t understand the heaviness of what happened, especially the shock after an assault. But I have friends and people close to me who went through it,’ she shared with Inquirer Entertainment. ‘When I read the script, I sympathized with Sheila a lot. It’s a very heavy story to tell. What I love about this film is that it’s quiet, but it wants to scream so much.’ On working in animation, she added: ‘The good thing about it is that the heaviness is more informed rather than shown in a very graphic way. It’s censored in a creative way.’
Producer Anna Velario emphasized how the film’s narrative was built not just from one story, but from many.
‘As a woman, it didn’t just come to me as a whole story. It came with different stories of other women. That’s what I hold on to,’ she said. ‘This didn’t come out of nowhere.’
Velario, who also worked with Papa on ‘Iti Mapukpukaw,’ sees ‘The Next 24 Hours’ as both a continuation and an amplification. ‘We just want more people to see it, to talk about it again,’ she explained.
At the heart of the film is the title itself: the urgency of the first 24 hours after an assault. ‘That’s the make-or-break for a victim,’ Velario stressed. ‘Deciding what to do next, whether to push through or not – it’s already so difficult. That silence, that internal battle, is what we highlight.’
Papa hopes audiences come away with awareness, but also responsibility. ‘There’s still stigma – people saying it’s okay if you’re in a relationship, if you’re married. But abuse is abuse. Even if society is supposedly woke, there are still people with their eyes closed,’ he pointed out.
As Marquez put it, ‘Even with the woke generation, there’s still a rise in conservatism. All the more we have to not shut up.’ Papa sees the 14-minute film as only the beginning. ‘We’re planning an expanded one,’ he revealed. ‘This is just a glimpse of what happens within those 24 hours.’
For now, he and his team are content with sparking conversations, delivering a film that doesn’t exploit trauma but gives survivors space, dignity, and voice.