Arden Rod Condez, Carla Pulido Ocampo, Angel Velasco Shaw
Past event

About

Lives of Devotion features three storytelling approaches that recast myth and iterations of imperialism across recent history. Dandansoy (2021) finds a young man assisting an aging “aswang,” a malevolent shape-shifting figure, to the mythical lake of Payaw. As Arden Rod Condez’s take on a popular Visayan song about leaving behind a beloved, this film reckons with the desertion of family and tradition while suggesting new forms of kinship possible. Different times crash in Tokwifi (2019), as a movie star from the 1950s encounters a Bontok Igorot man. Immersing in the communities of the Mountain Province, Carla Pulido chooses the myth of Tokwifi to bridge cultural shifts and recent politics. Alongside these two fictional renditions of love and local lore is Angel Velasco Shaw’s Nailed (1992), a poetic documentary investigating the notion of faith and Philippines’ 400 years of Spanish and American colonization. This montage of fragmented stories and stylized performances explores the performative aspects of “pagan” and Catholic religious practices while challenging the long game of imperialism in Philippine society.

Curated by Sidd Perez.

The Jack H. Skirball Series is organized by Bérénice Reynaud and Eduardo Thomas.

about the artists

Arden Rod Condez

Arden Rod Condez graduated at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas Iloilo. He premiered his full-length directorial debut, John Denver Trending, in 2019 which was awarded Best Film by Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. He then wrote Sonny Calvento’s Excuse Me, Miss, Miss, Miss (2019), the first-ever Filipino short film selected at the Sundance Film Festival. He made two more short films commissioned by Philippines’ National Commission for Culture and the Arts. One of these films is Random People (2020) which was screened at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival. The other one is Dandansoy (2021) which screened at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Sinehalaga Film Festival.

 

Carla Pulido Ocampo

Carla Pulido Ocampo is a filmmaker and community worker. She co-founded groups serving alternative cinema culture in Northern Philippines such as Habi Collective, Balay Habi Studio, and Pelicula Unión. Formally adopted by the Bontok Igorot people of the Philippine Cordillera, she has been given the indigenous name Khayapon. Currently, she is best known for her filmography centering on the culture and lore of the Bontok Igorot. She is writer, researcher, and editor for the seminal documentary Walang Rape sa Bontok (Bontok, Rapeless, 2014), and is the editor, writer, and director of the short film Tokwifi (Star, 2019) which has become one of the most critically acclaimed short films in the Philippines after its back-to-back Best Short Film wins from the prestigious Gawad Urian and FAMAS Awards. Since its premiere, Tokwifi has been showcased in international venues and festivals such as the 12th Cinema Rehiyon (Philippines, 2020), the 6th FIXON Fest Festival de Cine Fantastico y de Terror (Chile, 2021) and the 43rd Golden Harvest Awards Film Festival (Taiwan, 2021).

 

Angel Velasco Shaw

Angel Velasco Shaw is a visual and media artist, educator, and curator living in New York and Manila. Her experimental documentaries have screened in American, European, and Asian film festivals, museums, galleries, and schools. Amongst them: The Momentary Enemy (2008) (collection: The Jim Thompson Museum Archives- Bangkok Thailand); Umbilical Cord (1998) (collections: Cinematheque Suisse Schweizer Filmarchiv & Casa Asia - Barcelona, Spain); Asian Boys (1994) (collection: Cinematheque Suisse Schweizer Filmarchiv); and Nailed (1992) (collections: The Museum of Modern Art New York & Casa Asia - Barcelona, Spain). She is currently teaching at Princeton University in the American Studies-Asian American Studies Program. Nailed has been shown in North America and Asia since 1992. Its recent circulations were in the National University of Singapore Museum as part of the exhibition Double Vision in 2016, and at the Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival in 2022.

FILMS

Dandansoy (2021)

dir. Arden Rod Condez, 26 min.

 

Tokwifi (2019)

dir. Carla Pulido Ocampo, 20 min.


Nailed (1992)

dir. Angel Velasco Shaw, 50 min.