"Venice Atienza’s wistful and evocative documentary is rooted in the liminal space between childhood and adolescence." The Guardian

Berlin International Film Festival
Hot Docs International Documentary Festival
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam

12-year-old Reyboy lives in Karihatag, an isolated fishing village in the south of the Philippines. Every morning, the men set out to sea. Their daily catch is shared upon their return and the area close to the shore has been turned into an ecological safe haven for fish. In Karihatag, every boy grows up to become a fisherman. However, when the first rain falls, Reyboy will leave for the city to study. In Last Days at Sea, first-time director Venice Atienza joins Reyboy for his last summer at home. They spend the days watching the clouds change shape, and the nights looking up at the stars imagining life on Saturn. Reyboy shares the beauty he sees in the little things around him; the rocks, the crabs, the water. They talk about what it means to be home. Nothing seems to happen at the surface. But slowly, the cracks in Reyboy’s paradise start to appear. While the fishermen of Karihatag risk their lives as the yearly storms become increasingly dangerous due to climate change, Reyboy’s goodbye to the only life he has ever known becomes imminent.

Philippines - 2021 - 1h 12m
Directed By: Venice Atienza
Written By: Venice Atienza
Starring: John Russel Rey Paño

Director Biography - Venice Atienza

Venice Atienza (1989) is a Filipino documentarist whose curiosity is observing how life transformations are carried out through everyday mundane actions. To create a space for author driven documentaries, she co-founded Svemirko Film and Audiovisual Art Productions with Taiwanese Director and Producer, Fan WU. She’s an alumna of the DocNomads Erasmus Mundus Program. Her first feature film, Last Days at Sea premiered at the 71st Berlinale, Visions du Réel 2021, and Hot Docs and is supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund. It won a grant from DMZ Docs Rough Cut Presentation. The film won awards at Visions du Réel – Rough Cut Lab 2020, and the Docs by the Sea Editing Lab where it gained support from BODA Media Group (South Korea). The film was also presented at the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum, and Docs by the Sea. Last Days at Sea is part of the IDFA Project Space 2020. She is currently producing Taiwanese film director Fan WU’s documentary entitled “XiXi” which is currently part of CIRCLE – Women Doc Accelerator 2020. She’s a member of DAE- Documentary Association of Europe.