u16.co is an ongoing film project, originally from Sydney and today based in New York, that has been programmed at the Maysles Documentary Center and Harvard University. Founded in 2015 by Lorenzo Benitez, James Holloway and Jonathon Parker as a three-person collective, it has since become a moniker under which Benitez continues to produce cinema that derives a humanist attitude from cosmopolitan experiences. Follow our social media for updates on works-in-progress and watch our short films on our website.
'An Unscripted Earth' (2020), our award-winning second feature, is available on Amazon Prime Video after having been officially selected by international festivals including the Montreal Independent Film Festival. It follows two friends who reunite in Manila, among Asia’s fastest-growing megacities, untouched by Duterte’s War on Drugs yet unable to drown their own nostalgia and anxiety. Awarded for its direction and a lead performance, it is a micro-budget film that features the late Carlos Celdran’s final on-screen role.
'Six Months to Salvation' (2017), our critically-acclaimed first feature, follows seven volunteer teachers in the mountains of northern Thailand. Praised as “breathtaking”, “thought-provoking”, and “fascinating”, by publications including Film Courage, Study Breaks and Film Blerg, it is the first documentary of its length to ask if ‘voluntourism’ is a modern form of colonialism. An advanced micro-budget production, it has exhibited theatrically in New York and Melbourne, and had its Australian national TV premiere on the ABC.
