Multo

unreleased digital short film, coming 2025

A cleaning lady is hired to help American missionaries whose plans to move in unsettle a ghost occupying their new home.

The Story

Inspired by my experience as a child of missionary parents in the Philippines, Multo follows a handful of characters confronted by the silent but foreboding presence of a ghost— a ghost that carries an unknown yet weighted history. Diwa, a filipina cleaning lady, is hired by her church to clean a house previously occupied by missionaries in preparations for the arrival of Jesse and Ellie, a young, naive couple whose dreams of ministry unsettle a ghost quietly residing in the home. Jesse and Ellie’s attempts to settle-in are halted by strange inconveniences. Diwa’s attempts to help only deepen a rift of cultural confusion. At night, Jesse reassures his wife. “God has a plan for us here.” All the while the ghost’s silence keeps us guessing— is she a nice ghost?

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

I am nearing the age my parents were when they moved our family from Iowa to the Philippines as missionaries in 2005. The day we arrived, a mango branch collapsed on our front gate. Soon after, I became plagued by nightmares and my sister and father began seeing the ghost of a woman in a white dress around the house. Multo is a fictional unearthing of this history, filmed on-location at the same house where my family found ourselves out of our depth, waning under the hidden history of our new home.