Experiencing Interruptions?

Choices & Decisions

Aedam and Gray are an unexpected couple now on the last day of their ill-fated relationship. Their story is tinged with struggle and self-reflection. They will have to fully come to terms with their ghosts, with a closure so typical — poignant, bitter, hurting. Maybe not the closure that they want, but at least one that they deserve. And they have to end it here, now, in the same café that holds witness to how their love started and grew, and how each now has easily wilted away.

  • Clanch Dayve Belleza
    Director
    Samuel: The Silenced Wanderer, Julie, Padayon
  • Clanch Dayve Belleza
    Writer
    Samuel: The Silenced Wanderer, Julie, Padayon
  • Kenji Torrecampo
    Producer
  • Albert Chan Paran
    Producer
    Julie, Padayon
  • John Silver
    Producer
  • Kier Carlos
    Key Cast
    "Aedam"
  • RJ Tenchavez
    Key Cast
    "Gray"
    100 Yards
  • Jill Lastimosa
    Key Cast
    "Kelly"
  • Albert Chan Paran
    Key Cast
    "Wacky"
    Julie, Padayon
  • Jefjef Saagundo
    Key Cast
    "Ejay"
  • Christian Buscas
    Key Cast
    "Chad"
    Padayon, Patay Na Si Hesus, 100 Yards
  • Michael Calo
    Key Cast
    "Cedric"
  • Bern Lowel Edpalina
    Key Cast
    "Roj"
  • Clanch Dayve Belleza
    Key Cast
    "Edward (Voice)"
    The Muses, Swap, 100 Yards, Almost Paradise
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 28, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    Philippines
  • Country of Filming:
    Philippines
  • Language:
    Cebuano, English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Clanch Dayve Belleza

Without any formal training in film, Clanch Dayve Belleza stays active in the filmmaking playing field, learning the tricks of the creative trade through experience and passion -- collaborating with other filmmakers and continually honing his acting, screenwriting, and directing expertise.

Belleza has been exposed to the local film scene since 2011 and has worked in several major productions filmed in Cebu including being the casting director and assistant director in the film "Patay na si Hesus" in 2016 and the 2019 faith-based film "100 Yards", and as a stand-in and a bit player in the international TV series "Almost Paradise" in 2020 top-billed by actor Christian Kane.

Belleza's direction has specially received national and international recognition and awards for his 2015 short film Julie, at the International Film Festival Manhattan (October 2015) and the Los Angeles Philippine International Film Festival (October 2016) among others. For this achievement, he was recognized by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) as one of its 2017 film ambassadors.

Belleza last made waves with his short film "Padayon" that was a Top 10 qualifier at Nespresso Talents 2020, which later made it to the International Film Festival Manhattan Virtual Events 2020.

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Director Statement

How’s your heart? Taken? Taken for granted? Taking chances? Or, taking a break?

I don't know why but I have always wanted to touch very familiar yet usually unexplored territories in every story I tell. And when it comes to love, I most often gravitate towards anti-romance. Maybe because it's more telling. Maybe because while we don't all get that moonshot of a relationship in our lifetime, oddly enough, we are all well too familiar with unhappily-ever-afters and other pains that love tends to bring with it.

Because of a pitch by a good friend in the industry, I was forced to revisit my personal tragedies and used them as the impetus for each of the two protagonists in Choices and Decisions (stylized Choices & Decisions). I allowed my vulnerability to drive me to glue the broken pieces of these two broken souls, to hopefully help anyone who gets to watch it identify who he or she is in a relationship, especially when that relationship fails.

I must say this bleak but gripping narrative about love and loss is very personal. This is my attempt at the concept of finding closure, one that, most of the time, others are too selfish to grant us. At least with this fiction that deals with one of life’s truths, we learn to welcome questions and lessons we are forced to confront when every ideal relationship reaches its tipping point, and sadly, its dramatic collapse. This is a self-reflection triggered by a simple question: “What is the difference between a choice and a decision?” And when relationships end, does it still even matter?

This is my love letter to a couple of friends who passed away, who both had their own stories to tell when it comes to love and loss. This is a love letter to each of us who may have been the Aedam or the Gray in our failed relationships; to those who continue to learn how to love rightly no matter how many times we find ourselves trying, and failing. To all the taken and all the taken for granted, and to the few brave ones who continue to take chances. To all of us who keep asking, "How do I fare when it comes to love?" Lastly, this is a love letter to those who impel us to become better: our exes and significant others.