Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: A new season of “The Night Agent” lands on Netflix, Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia star in the new series “56 Days” for Prime Video and Harris Dickinson’s brilliant directorial debut, “Urchin,” lands on Hulu.

New movies to stream from Feb. 16-22

— Harris Dickinson might be best known for his acting in films like “Babygirl,” but last year he proved himself to be a filmmaker to watch as well. His brilliant directorial debut, “Urchin,” streaming on Hulu on Tuesday, follows in the social realist tradition of Ken Loach in chronicling the ups and downs of an unhoused addict (Frank Dillane) in London.

— HBO Max has the Emma Thompson-led thriller “Dead of Winter” arriving on Friday, Feb. 20. Thompson plays a grieving loner who gets lost near a Minnesota lake during a blizzard and stumbles on a cabin where a young woman is being held by an armed couple.

— And if Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” leaves you wanting more (or moor) Cathy and Heathcliff, there are plenty of other versions streaming on various platforms. There is of course William Wyler’s lush but much condensed 1939 film, with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon (on HBO Max and Criterion Channel). The 1992 version (free on Kanopy) starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche is one of the most faithful to Brontë’s text for actually including the second generation of Lintons and Earnshaws. Andrea Arnold’s underseen film, released in 2011, (free on Tubi) notably features a multiracial actor, James Howson, as Heathcliff, opposite Kaya Scodelario’s Catherine. There’s also the British television miniseries from 2009 with Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy that’s available on BritBox.

— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

New music to stream from Feb. 16-22

— The millennial queen hath returned. Hilary Duff will release her first full-length since 2015’s “Breathe In. Breathe Out.” on Friday, Feb. 20. Titled “luck… or something,” the album is a 11-track collection of nostalgic pop, the ideal listening experience for those still devastated by the tabled, adult “Lizzie McGuire” reboot. Of course, this time around, Duff has won out, and the themes are, as one song title puts it, “Mature.”

— It is not too late to hop aboard the Megan Moroney train, but the rest of us are pulling out of the station — and following her to greener pastures. The country singer-songwriter emerged as a fully-realized talent with the release of her platinum-selling single “Tennessee Orange” a few years back; her 2024 sophomore album “Am I Okay?” only strengthened her charms. Now she’s preparing to release “Cloud 9,” out Friday, Feb. 20, to win over even more hearts. There’s a reason “6 Months Later” has been inescapable on country music. Isn’t it time you found out why?

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

New series to stream from Feb. 16-22

— Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia star in a new series “56 Days” for Prime Video as Ciara and Oliver who meet by chance at a grocery store and embark on a whirlwind, passionate romance. Fifty-six days later, homicide detectives find a decomposed body in a bathtub which could be Ciara or Oliver leaving the question, who killed who? It’s based on a best-seller by Catherine Ryan Howard. Cameron and Jogia, who started out on Disney and Nickelodeon respectively, show they’re not kids anymore in this sexy thriller. It premieres Wednesday.

— A new season of Netflix’s “The Night Agent” arrives Thursday. It stars Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland, a secret operative working in counter-intelligence for the FBI. In Season 3, he’s on a mission to find a treasury secretary who has fled to Istanbul after committing murder, that leads to the discovery of a dark money network. Information may be power, but it can also be deadly and Peter’s in trouble.

— Jennifer Garner’s “The Last Thing He Told Me” returns Friday, Feb. 20 on Apple TV. It’s based on novels by Laura Dave. Garner plays Hannah Hall, a new wife and stepmom whose world is rocked in Season 1 when her new husband, Owen, (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) disappears, leaving a note to protect his teen daughter, Bailee (played by Angourie Rice). Season 2 picks up five years later when (spoiler alert but it’s in the trailer) Owen shows back up. Now, the three are in danger. Garner, who mastered fight scenes for her breakout role in the TV show “Alias” and as Marvel assassin Elektra, gets to show her kicks and punches.

— Alicia Rancilio

New video games to play from Feb. 16-22

— Stealth games like Thief, Dishonored and Splinter Cell have seen better days, but at least one developer — France’s Cyanide — is trying to carry the genre forward. In Styx: Blades of Greed, you are a goblin who isn’t particularly well-equipped to fight toe-to-toe against orcs and other bullies. But if you take the sneaky approach you can fill your pockets with quartz, the most valuable and volatile substance in this fantasy world. Magic powers like invisibility and mind control make it a little easier to avoid brawling, but if things get out of hand you can whip out a glider and fly away. The heist begins Thursday on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.

— Lou Kesten

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But how much? Economists and meteorologists are trying to get a handle on the disruption costs of winter weather disasters, which aren’t as easy to calculate as buildings destroyed by hurricanes, floods and fires.

“Events like this storm highlight just how interconnected our economy is with weather conditions. When major transportation hubs shut down or power grids fail, the cascading effects ripple through supply chains and business operations across multiple sectors simultaneously,” said Jacob Fooks, a research economist for Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University.

Fooks said researchers don’t have consensus, but most estimates suggest severe weather events collectively can cut gross domestic product by 0.5% to 2% annually — which he called “very substantial.”

With U.S. GDP at about $30 trillion annually, that would be from $150 billion to $600 billion.

One private company puts a big price tag on the storm

Most economists, meteorologists and disaster experts said it’s too early to put a legitimate cost estimate on the weekend storm and upcoming week of subfreezing temperatures. But the private company AccuWeather announced that its preliminary estimate for the storm that grounded 11,400 flights is between $105 billion and $115 billion — an amount six other experts scoffed at as far too high and insufficiently detailed.

“A lot of it comes from the disruptions that occur to commerce, the cost of power outages,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter told The Associated Press at the annual American Meteorological Society convention in a chilly Houston. “Some businesses are going to be shut down for days or a week or more.”

It’s why AccuWeather is calling this “the storm that shut it all down,” Porter said. By Monday, it had killed at least 25 people.

Add to that ice toppling electrical lines leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power, tree losses, damage to cars, and all those canceled flights, Porter said. He noted it will take time to reboot air travel and restore power.

Other experts say that’s too high

Climate economist Adam Smith, who used to run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s billion-dollar weather disaster list, said this storm will easily cost multiple billions of dollars, making it the country’s first billion-dollar weather disaster of 2026.

But Smith, now a senior climate impact scientist at Climate Central, said it’s nowhere near as costly as AccuWeather suggests. He said the private company has been an outlier among experts in climate impacts and economics. He pointed to the private company’s initial estimate of $250 billion in damage from last year’s Los Angeles wildfires. Several climate, risk and insurance groups all waited to do extensive analysis and all said the real amount was around $60 billion.

AccuWeather’s estimates are much higher because they take into account the “bigger picture” of indirect and long-term costs, Porter said, including the business supply chain as well as medical costs. Most other estimates are “under-describing the challenges that people in the community and business face,’’ he said, pointing to NOAA’s billion-dollar disaster page which listed factors not considered. That page says NOAA’s estimates “should be considered conservative with respect to what is truly lost.”

So far, the most expensive winter storm on record in the U.S. is 2021’s Texas ice storm, which cost about $26 billion, Smith and Fooks said. The 2016 Northeast blizzard cost about $3 billion, Fooks said.

Smith said this weekend’s storm could approach the cost of the 2021 Texas storm because it is so widespread.

Some storm costs are hard to quantify

There’s a big difference in the type of losses that are talked about with winter storms and other weather disasters.

Hurricanes, fires and floods cause damage to buildings, infrastructure and physical things that insurers will pay out for. In snow and ice storms, much of it is lost opportunity, which is more amorphous and harder to quantify, said Smith, Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini, former NOAA chief scientist Ryan Maue and former National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini.

“When we talk about the billion dollar damage, we talk about hurricane damage, we’re basically talking about insurable losses,” Maue said. “People generally aren’t renumerated for bad weather.’’

Uccellini noted it can be tricky to figure out costs of those lost opportunities, in part, because research has found there can be economic winners in winter storms — for example, the hardware store that sells more shovels and salt, and the grocery store that sells more food.

Fooks, of Colorado State, said it still seems that losses far outstrip those gains. He cited things like disruption of supply chains and business operations, response costs for emergency managers and departments of transportation, and so on.

Porter and others say regardless of how costs are calculated, they are adding up.

As the climate warms, costly weather disasters are happening “at an increasing frequency and impact around the world,” Porter said. “This is just the latest example.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Soon after the shooting, photos emerged erroneously identified as showing the victim, a 37-year-old mother of three. Others were fabricated to falsely show the face of the officer involved or were misrepresented to say he had a Nazi tattoo. And an old video of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was said to show him speaking about the incident.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

Images said to show the officer likely AI

CLAIM: Images show the ICE officer who shot Good without a mask at the scene of the shooting.

THE FACTS: This is false. The images were fabricated. They appear to be screenshots from a video of the shooting, as the background matches the location where it took place. But that footage never shows the officer without a mask.

Hany Farid, a digital forensics and misinformation expert at the University of California, Berkeley, said that the images appear to have been generated by AI and that they are unlikely to reflect what the officer looks like.

“We have previously studied the application of AI to ‘enhance’ facial images,” he said. “Under considerably more favorable conditions than in this example of the masked ICE agent, AI enhancement/reconstruction is not consistently reliable.”

He continued: “In this situation where half of the face is obscured, AI (or any other technique) is not, in my opinion, able to accurately reconstruct the facial identity.”

Victim falsely identified in photos

CLAIM: Two photos of a blond woman with a small child show Good.

THE FACTS: False. The photos are of Renee Paquette, a former WWE wrestler, and her daughter.

One photo shows Paquette kneeling on the ground while her daughter hugs her. She posted it to Instagram on International Women’s Day in 2023, writing that “raising a strong, independent, free thinking, confident woman is my main objective.” The other photo shows Paquette kissing her daughter’s cheek as her daughter sticks out her tongue. It was posted in 2024, on her daughter’s third birthday.

Paquette commented on one of the posts misrepresenting her photos: “Wrong Renée. My condolences to her family.”

___

CLAIM: A photo of a woman with short, pale pink hair wearing a green sweater shows Good.

THE FACTS: False. The woman in the photo is not Good, it is Gabriela Szczepankiewicz. Photos of both women appeared in a 2020 Facebook post from Old Dominion University announcing the winners of a poetry prize.

Szczepankiewicz earned an honorable mention in the undergraduate category for that year’s Academy of American Poets Prize. Her photo, which is captioned with her name, is the first to appear in the Facebook post.

Good — who is identified as Renee Macklin in her photo — won the undergraduate category. Her photo appears third.

Photo of man with tattoo is not the officer involved in the shooting

CLAIM: An image of a man with a Nazi tattoo on his neck shows the ICE officer who shot Good.

THE FACTS: False. The image, which comes from a video posted to Instagram on Jan. 5 — two days before the shooting — is of a different man. Video of the shooting shows that the ICE officer involved does not have a tattoo in the same place as the man in the image spreading online.

In the Instagram video, a man behind the camera confronts the man with the tattoo outside of a restaurant on Lyndale Avenue South in Minneapolis. The tattoo is visible in the first few seconds of the video. It consists of two black lightning bolts that resemble the SS bolts symbol, which was used by the Nazi guard, and appears on the right side of the man’s neck, directly behind his earlobe.

The tattooed man says he “had this done years ago” and that he “ain’t had no time to change it” as he walks away.

In footage from the shooting, the ICE officer who shot Good is seen walking down the street about one minute in with a mask covering the bottom half of his face. He does not have a tattoo behind his right earlobe. In addition, his earlobe is shaped differently than that of the man in the Instagram video.

Video does not show Florida governor discussing the shooting

CLAIM: A video shows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defending Good.

THE FACTS: False. The video is from an interview DeSantis did in June on “The Rubin Report,” an online political talk show, amid protests that month over President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles.

“And we also have a policy that if you’re driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety,” DeSantis, a Republican, says in the clip spreading online. “And so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that’s their fault for impinging on you. You don’t have to sit there and just be a sitting duck and let the mob grab you out of your car and drag you through the streets. You have a right to defend yourself in Florida.”

DeSantis was not referring to Good. He was answering a question about Florida’s policies on protests that block roads. – By MELISSA GOLDIN Associated Press

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The iHeartRadio Music Awards honor the most played artists of the year on its stations and app. Last year, Swift and country singer Morgan Wallen led the nominees with 10 each.

She also led the nominees in 2024 and in 2023, when she tied with Lizzo and Harry Styles.

This time around, Swift is up for song, artist, pop artist, pop song of the year, best lyrics, best music video, favorite on screen, favorite tour style as well as the new to 2026, fan-voted category favorite TikTok dance.

“This is an annual awards show made exclusively for fans, celebrating the biggest songs and artists they’ve loved listening to on iHeartRadio stations and our iHeartRadio app all year long,” said John Sykes, president of entertainment enterprises and Tom Poleman, chief programming officer of iHeartMedia in a joint statement.

Squaring off against Swift in the artist of the year category are Wallen, Carpenter, Bad Bunny, Benson Boone, Chris Brown, Jelly Roll, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and Tate McRae.

And in song of the year, Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” will face off against Wallen’s “Love Somebody,” Carpenter’s “Manchild,” Boone’s “Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else,” Doechii’s “Anxiety,” Shaboozey’s “Good News,” Warren’s “Ordinary,” Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther,” Leon Thomas’ “Mutt” and Myles Smith’s “Stargazing.”

Fans can vote in several categories including favorite Broadway debut, favorite TikTok dance, favorite debut album, best lyrics, best music video, favorite on screen, favorite tour photographer, favorite soundtrack, favorite tour style, favorite tour tradition and favorite K-pop collab.

Social voting takes place at iHeartRadio.com/awards and will close March 19 at 11:59 p.m. PDT for all categories.

The 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards broadcasts live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 26 at 8 p.m. EDT on FOX.

It will also air on iHeartRadio stations across the U.S. and on the app.

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Hundreds of people protesting the shooting of Renee Good marched in freezing rain Thursday night down one of Minneapolis’ major thoroughfares, chanting “ICE out now” and holding signs saying, “killer ice off our streets.” Protesters earlier vented their outrage outside a federal facility that is serving as a hub for the administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major city.

Early Friday, city crews removed makeshift barricades made from debris including garbage cans and Christmas trees that blocked streets in the area of Wednesday’s shooting to keep streets open, but Minneapolis officials said they would not remove the memorial the community created there. An estimated 15 tons (13.6 metric tonnes) of debris including metal and tires were removed, officials said.

The shooting in Portland, Oregon, took place outside a hospital Thursday afternoon. A man and woman were shot inside a vehicle, and their conditions were not immediately known. The FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice were investigating.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on ICE to end all operations in the city until a full investigation is completed. Hundreds protested Thursday night at the ICE building. Early Friday, Portland police reported that a handful of arrests were made after officers asked protesters to move to the sidewalk, as traffic remained open in the area.

Just as it did following Wednesday’s shooting in Minneapolis shooting, the Department of Homeland Security defended the actions of the officers in Portland, saying it occurred after a Venezuelan man with alleged gang ties and who was involved in a recent shooting tried to “weaponize” his vehicle to hit the officers. It was not yet clear if witness video corroborates that account.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly characterized the Minneapolis shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.

Vice President JD Vance said the shooting was justified and Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was a “victim of left-wing ideology.”

“I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it is a tragedy of her own making,” Vance said, noting that the officer who killed her was injured while making an arrest last June.

But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying video recordings show the self-defense argument is “garbage.”

An immigration crackdown quickly turns deadly

The Minneapolis shooting happened on the second day of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which Homeland Security said is the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 officers are taking part and Noem said they have made more than 1,500 arrests.

It provoked an immediate response in the city where police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of people turning up to the scene to vent their outrage at the ICE officers and the school district canceling classes for the rest of the week as a precaution.

Good’s death — at least the fifth tied to immigration sweeps since Trump took office — has resonated far beyond Minneapolis, as protests took place or were expected this week in many large U.S. cities.

Who will investigate?

The Minnesota agency that investigates officer-involved shootings said Thursday that it was informed that the FBI and U.S. Justice Department would not work with the it, effectively ending any role for the state to determine if crimes were committed. Noem said the state has no jurisdiction.

“Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands,” said Drew Evans, head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz demanded that the state be allowed to take part, repeatedly emphasizing that it would be “very difficult for Minnesotans” to accept that an investigation excluding the state could be fair.

Deadly encounter seen from multiple angles

Several bystanders captured video of Good’s killing, which happened in a neighborhood south of downtown.

The recordings show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

It is not clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer, and there is no indication of whether the woman had interactions with agents earlier. After the shooting, the SUV speeds into two cars parked on a curb before crashing to a stop.

Officer identified in records

The federal agent who fatally shot Good is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and ICE, according to records obtained by AP.

Noem has not publicly named him, but a Homeland Security spokesperson said her description of his injuries last summer refers to an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota, in which court documents identify him as Jonathan Ross.

Ross got his arm stuck in the window of a vehicle whose driver was fleeing arrest on an immigration violation. Ross was dragged and fired his Taser. A jury found the driver guilty of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

Attempts to reach Ross, 43, at phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not successful. By REBECCA SANTANA, TIM SULLIVAN and GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press

Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski and Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis; Ed White in Detroit; Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas; Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma; Michael Biesecker in Washington; Jim Mustian in New York; Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

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The short film competing for in the 21^st edition of the Cinemalaya, Water Sports, is a 19-minute, 36-second short film that blends apocalyptic dread with unexpected romantic comedy.

Water Sports, centers on two young men, Jelson and Ipe, deeply in love and grappling with a world ravaged by ecological collapse. Their journey is spurred by the optimistic mantra of their teacher (played by Ricky Davao): a strong heart and mind, coupled with an iron will, can triumph over any hardship. As the boys undergo intense physical and mental trials to prepare for survival, they—and the audience—are led to a profound realization.

The film sets the tone with the two sad boys harnessing the power of their love in an attempt to survive a world devastated by climate change.”

The film stars talented actors Elijah Canlas and Renz Javier, with Bon Lentejas rounding out the main cast.

ALCAZAREN is a multi-awarded porn director and production designer for film and advertising. He is a graduate of the University of the Philippines Film Institute, a participant of the 2013 13 Little Pictures Film lab in Singapore, 2016 Festival Belluard Bollwek Watch and Talk Residency in Switzerland, and 2024 Berlinale Talents. As production designer, he is a frequent collaborator with director Carlo Manatad for Whether the Weather is Fine (2022, Locarno Concorso Cineasti del presente) and director Raya Martin for Death of Nintendo (2020, Berlinale Generations). His most recent collaboration as production designer is for Sam Manacsa’s short film Cross my Heart and Hope to Die, which premiered in 2024 Cinemalaya and the Venice Film Festival 2023. His first short film Bold Eagle won Best International Short at the Fantasia Film Festival 2023. The film was also screened in the 61st New York Film Festival and the 40th Edition of the Sundance Film Festival. He is currently in development of his next feature, Noodles, Our Love was Instant and Forever.

The production team includes Carlo Francisco Manatad as editor, Berhil Cruz as cinematographer, and Ana Lou Sanchez as production designer. The original music score is crafted by Sage Ilagan and Caloy Soliongco, ensuring the film’s unique tone is matched by its auditory experience. Produced by Alemberg Ang and Mara Ravelo Bernaldo, “Water Sports” promises to be a visually striking, emotionally complex, and surprisingly charming take on the end of the world. By Maria Elena Catajan

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The film’s provocative logline: what happens when a farmer, facing eviction from her own land, decides to renounce her citizenship and unilaterally establish her own micronation?

The story centers on Cora Vitug, played by the formidable Geraldine Villamil, a disillusioned farmer who fights the impending government takeover of her property by declaring herself the head of the Republika ng Pipolipinas. This solitary act of resistance immediately fractures the community. While some are inspired by her courage, many others quickly question her motives and even her sanity. The film uses this division to explore the very definition of patriotism and community.

Cora’s peaceful protest is thrust into a new government project threatens to hasten her displacement. Cora and her growing band of ‘citizens’ must pivot from defiance to investigation, setting out to unearth a tangled web of corruption that extends far beyond their small, beleaguered town.

Dimla, a screenwriter and Palanca Award recipient known for her work in film and television, including her animation piece Anomi, transitions smoothly to the director’s chair, this deeply political tale.

Cast includes Alessandra de Rossi, Kakki Teodoro, and veteran Xiao Chua, and anchored by the technical excellence of cinematographer Pabelle Manikan and editor Cha Escala.  Maria Elena Catajan

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Filmmaker Hannah Silvestre is tackling the absurdities of modern in her short film, “Ascension from the Office Cubicle.” The 20-minute off-beat existential drama, explores the monotonous grind of the call center industry.

The film centers on Thelma, an overworked and exploited call center agent played by Ginger Nolasco. Overwhelmed by her dreary cubicle existence, Thelma begins a fantastical escape through the late-night local lottery draw. Her craving for connection morphs into a full-blown obsession with the charismatic lotto host, Arman (Dads Valencia), who appears to offer her an illusory way out of her mundane reality. A “tribute to all modern-day laborers,” the film promises a journey through “tiny vices, false hopes and quick fixes” that resonate deeply with the anxieties of the working class.

Silvestre, graduate of the AB Film program at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde, her work grapples with existentialism and self-actualization. Her approach to filmmaking earned her a coveted spot representing the Philippines at the Roger Hatchuel Student Academy in Cannes in 2024, an experience that expanded her global creative network. “Ascension from the Office Cubicle” served as her college thesis film, positioning it as a mature and insightful exploration of capitalist routine from a young, rising voice.

The film is also backed Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) with collaborators, with Silvestre also taking on Screenwriter and Editor roles with Cameron Reganit as the Cinematographer and Associate Producer, and contributions coming from Mitch Arren Alvarez (Production Design), Bethany Fuertes (Original Music Score), and Tristan Icban (Sound Design). By Maria Elena Catajan 

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Shot live from the National Theatres in London, Hamlet returns to the Philippine shore this July 29, 6:00 p.m., at Glorietta 4 Cinema 4 in Makati City, while A Streetcar Named Desire will premiere at the Ayala Malls Vertis North & Ayala Malls Central Bloc, Cebu on the same date and time.

The downward spiral of a vengeful son

Watch Prince Hamlet’s slow descent to madness after his father’s ghosts reveal the truth about his own death. Academy Award-winning actor Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) plays the titular character in William Shakespeare’s most famous play.

Directed by Lyndsey Turner and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, this version of Hamlet seems to dissect the Prince of Denmark and his darkening world with political precision and psychological insight. The staging of the Shakespearean tragedy has been hailed for its acting and visual modern setting, emphasizing the continuing relevance of the classic play in today’s generation.

This world-renowned Elizabethan classic explores the complexity of the human psyche and the consequences of love, revenge and grief. For its broadcast debut in 2015, Hamlet broke all records and became the fastest-selling event in London theater history. Tickets were sold out before rehearsals at the theater even began.

What desire does to the mind

Gillian Anderson (Sex Education), Vanessa Kirby (The Crown), and Ben Foster (Lone Survivor) lead the cast in Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece: A Streetcar Named Desire.

In this play, as Blanche’s fragile world crumbles, she turns to her sister Stella for solace. But her downward spiral brings her face to face with the brutal, unforgiving Stanley Kowalski.

Greetings from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)!
From visionary director Benedict Andrews, this acclaimed production was filmed live during a sold-out run at the Young Vic Theatre in 2014.

Published in 1947, during the aftermath of the Second World War, this masterpiece revolves around the taboo themes of class tensions, female sexuality, homosexuality, and male domination – all of which simultaneously coexisted with the social dilemmas of the time.

A Streetcar Named Desire had its first staging on December 3, 1947, with the performance ending with a short, surprised silence before a thunder of applause that lasted 30 minutes.

Bringing London’s bests to the Philippine screens

Committed to the preservation and promotion of the arts, CCP’s National Theatre Live, in partnership with National Theatre Live London and Ayala Malls Cinemas, aims to make world-class theatre performances more accessible to Filipinos and ingrain a deeper appreciation for the performing arts.

Since its launch in June 2009, National Theatre Live broadcasts the best of British theater live from the London stage to cinemas around the world. NTL films their plays in front of live theater audiences, but optimized for the big screen and made accessible to theater fans outside of the United Kingdom.

Regular ticket prices are PHP300 in Makati and Cebu, and PHP350 in Vertis North, with special ticket price for students at PHP150 upon presentation of valid ID. Visit the cinema ticket booth or book online via www.sureseats.com.

To get the latest updates on CCP’s National Theatre Live and other events, follow the official CCP social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Visit the CCP website (www.culturalcenter.gov.ph) for more news.

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The July quake was the day before the birthday of my cousin, who was the only friend I had when I started school here. I repeat, my only friend.

In the mornings, we would go to school together, beating the 7:30 bell at the all-girls school which was still at Assumption Road and walked home

Yes, we were a tight group of two. I don’t know what kind of losers we were, being cousins who lived in the same compound and best friends who went to the same school, but we didn’t care.

Naturally, we were together at the time of the great quake of the 1990’s, the city was under Daylight Savings Time [DST], I forgot why really and am too lazy to google research this small detail. The point is, it set back time for an hour.

That day, we were on our way home, aboard a jeepney at Session road, by LA [La Azotea], it was traffic and we were sitting at the far end of the jeep, looking out the blare the rush hour brought when suddenly, we heard a loud noise, we thought was a gunshot and started to slowly panic.

Later, we realized the sound was the sharp thud of bricks on the pavement from the building which was swaying because of the shakes

And then we started the journey home, it was weird that we managed to ride the same jeep going home and found everyone out in the streets.

My brother had to be coaxed to go down the house as we lived on the second floor.

When all was safe and accounted for, tents were set up and we had to live in these makeshift homes for weeks.

The tale of the quake was slowly falling into place for many whose narratives revolved around the days when the city was in ruins.

The smell of death and grief was everywhere.

My grandmother who was on her way to the city via bus had to climb three mountains only to be turned back and walk the same mountains to return to Manila.

We had to be airlifted to the lowlands when an aunt managed to hitch a ride with the military to the city aboard cargo planes.

We eventually came back when school started, again our classrooms were tents set up outside the campus to save us if another shake hit.

Ruins surrounded the city as life started to go back to normal.

But it was never normal after that.

It was the time I realized I wanted to become a journalist.

Thirty -five years later,  people commemorate the quake of 1990 like it was yesterday.

I became a journalist and July serves as a reminder why.

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