Long before text-message and Facebook courtships, young men in the Philippines stood earnestly beneath the windows of the women they loved to profess their devotion. Backed by supportive friends and accompanied by the town's finest guitarist, these young suitors crooned the night away until finally invited inside (or ultimately rejected). This long-abandoned art of harana (serenade) is brought to light in this award-winning feature documentary by Benito Bautista.

Aguilar, a classically trained guitarist, returned to the Philippines to discover three of the last remaining harana masters: a farmer, a fisherman, and a taxi driver. Untrained and self-taught, these men astound Aguilar with their deeply rich, trembling voices. In a sincere effort to capture and preserve their melodies and stories, Aguilar asks them to travel with him to perform and record these unheralded songs. As Aguilar and the three haranistas captivate audiences in small villages and prestigious concert halls, the men connect deeply with the past and with one another. Along the way, the group even helps a painfully shy young man serenade his longtime crush, in one of the most genuine instances of harana ever captured on film.

Set against a backdrop of Manila's atmospheric old town and the picturesque Philippine countryside, Harana is a heartbreaking and inspiring love song to the practitioners and the sounds of a romantic, bygone era.