Black san serif logo spelling out KANI with elongated circular eyes signifying crab eyes. Wavy contours are reminicent of the ocean. Kani Releasing logo designed by Leo Mak.

KANI013

Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara

Once a Moth

Philippines

1976

110
minutes

Synopsis

Nora Aunor stars, in what is often deemed her finest performance, as Corazon de la Cruz, a Filipina nurse. Living near the US Clark Air Base on Luzon Island, she dreams of a better life in the United States… until the unspeakable happens.

Directed by Lupita Aquino-Kashiwahara, Once A Moth is a long-lost, rarely-seen landmark of Filipino cinema, here miraculously salvaged and restored despite weather-worn elements and a missing first reel. A timeless, galvanising, anti-imperialist classic conceived as a protest film against the unending occupation of the Philippines by foreign powers, it gives their wings back to those attracted and irrevocably burned by the flame of the American Dream.


★2K restoration by ABS-CBN
★Featurette on the restoration (9mins, 2023)
★ Before and After (1min, 2018)
★ Restoration Trailer
★ Optional English Subtitles

Booklet with
★ Archival Photographs courtesy of the Mowelfund Library and Audiovisual Archives,
★ New writing by scholars Jose B. Capino and John Labella,
★ Interview with Producer Digna Santiago,
★ Interview with Screenwriter Marina Feleo Gonzalez by critic Aaron Hunt
★ New art by Luigi Almuena

Team

Contact

Inquiries: info@kani-releasing.com
Theatrical Bookings: theatrical@kani-releasing.com
Press: press@kani-releasing.com

Founded by Ariel Esteban Cayer & Pearl Chan
Theatrical Booking: Aaron Hunt
Logo Design: Leo Mak
Ident Theme: The Great Octopus
Distribution: OCN Distribution