In its second year, the Cinematografo International Film Festival spotlights emerging and established artists who are detailing the Filipino-American experience.

The works represented in this year’s edition at the Kabuki theaters in San Francisco touch on nearly every genre and format — from comedies to thrillers and on to documentaries and short narrative and nonfiction features.

The festival kicks off Nov. 8 with the Bay Area premiere of “Signal Rock,” Chito Roño’s poignant family drama about a young man’s decision to care for his parents on an isolated island. It’s the Philippines’ entry in the Oscars’ foreign language category.

The Nov. 11 closing night film — “A Land Imagined” — indicates the festival’s willingness to broaden its reach with an award-winning drama from Singapore. “Imagined” thrusts audiences into a topical narrative about a sleep-deprived detective trying to crack a case of a vanished Chinese worker.

Other standouts: PJ Ravel’s “ Call Her Ganda,” an intense, emotional portrait of one family’s pursuit of justice in the murder of a transgender woman; “Remittance,” a short drama about a woman working on a cruise ship when she receives bad news, and “Bitter Melon,” H. P. Mendoza’s dark comedy about a Bay Area holiday feast that goes ever so wrong.

Details: Nov. 8-11, AMC Kabuki 8, San Francisco; for tickets, schedule and and more information, visit cinematografofilmfestival.com