BAKUNAWA FEST X
BAKUNAWA FEST X projeXions Tour
Bakunawa Fest X collaborates with University of the Philippines Visayas Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage and UPV OICA to present BFX projeXions exhibition tour this December 2023 in Iloilo City, Western Visayas. The fringe exhibition to be mounted at the museum's lobby is curated by renowned Ilonggo sculptor and the Museum's Curator, Martin Genodepa; and programmed by Bakunawa Fest's Festival Director, Elvert Bañares (an Ilonggo visual and multidisciplinary artist himself). The interactive exhibit will also feature selected experimental films from this year's competition shorts.
CO-PRESENTED BY
INTANGIBLE
Director: CAROLINA CECA
2021 I Experimental I 6min, 57 sec I Japan, Spain
PHILIPPINE PREMIERE, UPFI'S ISHMAEL BERNAL GALLERY
WESTERN VISAYAN PREMIERE, UPV MACH, ILOILO CITY
"Intangible" has been created by Carolina Ceca, and its central theme is the mystery of the birth and development of life cycles.
All the scenes are filmed at the Embassy of Spain in Tokyo, Japan, during the pandemic. Butoh dancer Tomoshi Shioya from the Dairakudakan company dances to Carolina Ceca's choreography. Award-winning Marcos Fernández-Barrero created the musical composition.
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CAROLINA CECA
Carolina Ceca is a Tokyo-based artist, director, art historian and columnist who took up postgraduate studies at the University of Salamanca in Spain and the Ferris University in Japan. She has carried out artist residencies at the Institut National des Beaux-Arts of Tetouan in Morocco and Casa Falconieri in Sardinia, Italy. Carolina is honoured to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).
She has held solo exhibitions at the Embassy of Spain in Japan, Instituto Cervantes Tokyo, among others. She has participated in various group exhibitions, including at the Royal Palace in Cagliari, Italy, and the Estampa Contemporary Art Fair in Madrid, Spain.
DA`IM OR: The Sound that the Mother Makes When Her Babies Break
Director: Kuda Box, Yahshiyya
2023 I Experimental I 7min, 53sec I Philippines
ASIAN PREMIERE, UPFI'S ISHMAEL BERNAL GALLERY
WESTERN VISAYAN PREMIERE, UPV MACH, ILOILO CITY
Man, betrayed by the hollow echoes of his hammer, smashes the sphere to reveal the vehicle away from the hole, towards the hole. The inescapable gift of fertility fulfills his ultimate duty to make the world obscure again in order to reclaim what was known.
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KUDA BOX, YASHIYYA
Kuda Bux (b. 1991) has been running around the streets of Cebu doing what he thinks is an approximation of whatever art is. Over the years he has been running near-zero budget productions with Aprum-Oves and Corner House Productions creating scrap videos and junk stories.
Yahshiyya (b. 1999) is a writer and poet from an Islamic tribe on the southernmost island of the Philippines. Da`im or: The Sound that the Mother Makes When Her Babies Break is her debut directorial film.
HYPNIC JERK
Directors: Pamela Falkenberg, Jack Cochran
2023 I Animation, Experimental I 2min 55 sec I USA
INTL PREMIERE, UPFI'S ISHMAEL BERNAL GALLERY
WESTERN VISAYAN PREMIERE, UPV MACH, ILOILO CITY
"Hooked by the mention of Rousseau’s jungle in the first line of Alan Peat’s evocative and mysterious Haibun, “Hypnic Jerk,” we wondered if we could create a wholly imaginary world cut from the cloth of Rousseau’s fantastical paintings and the dream illogic of Peat’s brilliantly fragmented, hypnic poetic strategy. We had previously tried something with a similar kind of logic, when making a film based on Wallace Stevens’ out of copyright “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” another anything goes kind of videopoetry project. We think both results are true to the poems in their own crazy ways, though both are probably nothing like what either poet would ever have imagined … but we hope both would enjoy our divergent results, as well as whatever audiences may come our way." (Filmmakers)
SECTION : projeXions
PAMELA FALKENBERG, JACK CHOCKRAN
Pam is an independent filmmaker who received her PhD from the University of Iowa and taught at Northern Illinois University, St.Mary's College, and the University of Notre Dame. She directed the largest student film society in the US while she was at the University of Iowa, and also ran films series for the Snite Museum of Art in South Bend, IN. Her experimental film with Dan Curry, Open Territory, received an individual filmmaker grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as grants from the Center for New Television and the Indiana Arts Council. OT screened at the Pacific Film Archives, as well at numerous film festivals, including the AFI Video Festival, and was nominated for a regional Emmy.
Jack is an independent filmmaker who has produced, directed, or shot a variety of experimental and personal projects. As a DP he has extensive experience shooting commercials, independent features, and documentaries. His varied commercial client list includes BMW, Ford, Nissan, Fujifilm, Iomega, Corum Watches, and Forte Hotels. His features and documentaries have shown at the Sundance, Raindance, Telluride, Tribeca, Edinburgh, Chicago, Houston, and Taos film Festivals, winning several honors. His commercials and documentaries have won Silver Lions from Cannes, a BAFTA (British Academy Award), Peabody Awards, and Cable Aces.
DILEMMA
Director: Carolina Ceca
2023 I Experimental I 4min, 49 sec I Japan
INTL PREMIERE, UPFI'S ISHMAEL BERNAL GALLERY
WESTERN VISAYAN PREMIERE, UPV MACH, ILOILO CITY
The work 'Dilemma' takes its starting point from the painting 'Witches' Sabbath' (1797–1798) by the artist Francisco de Goya.
In 'Dilemma', the darkness of the coven's night dissipates and becomes a bright day, and the children take power. This work provides a contemporary look at art and its demons..
SECTION : projeXions
CAROLINA CECA
Carolina Ceca is a Tokyo-based artist, director, art historian and columnist who took up postgraduate studies at the University of Salamanca in Spain and the Ferris University in Japan. She has carried out artist residencies at the Institut National des Beaux-Arts of Tetouan in Morocco and Casa Falconieri in Sardinia, Italy. Carolina is honoured to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).
She has collaborated with various media in Japan—for instance, as a columnist for Yomiuri Shimbun on their Art Exhibition Japan website and for NHK Editorial in publishing her drawings. She has also given lectures, workshops and seminars in different countries with institutions such as the Japan Foundation at Casa Asia and the University of Valencia, among others.
PAOD (YOKE)
Director: IAN GALICIA
2023 I Experimental I 10min, 20 sec I Philippines
PHILIPPINE PREMIERE, UPFI'S CINE ADARNA
WESTERN VISAYAN PREMIERE, UPV MACH, ILOILO CITY
An exhausted man tied to his material possessions journeys through the five stages of grief. Bearing the weight of his past, he attempts to let go as he steps into the next chapter of his life.
SECTION : FANTASTIC COMPETITION SHORTS
IAN GALICIA
Ian Galicia is a filmmaker (Director and Colorist) from the Philippines. He started to make films in the School of Design and Arts in De La-Salle College of Saint Benilde. Keen to furthering his knowledge of alternative forms of cinema, he also attended Armando Lao's Found Story school of filmmaking wherein he learned various ideologies in making films that has always pushed him to challenge what is expected and the norm through the experimental medium.
UNKNOWN FOOTAGE
Director: JT TRINIDAD
2023 I Experimental I 4min I Philippines
WORLD PREMIERE, UPFI'S CINE ADARNA
WESTERN VISAYAN PREMIERE, UPV MACH, ILOILO CITY
Year 2005. A found footage from Benevolent Believer Makers Association.
SECTION : FANTASTIC COMPETITION SHORTS
JT TRINIDAD
JT Trinidad is a filmmaker born and raised in Pandacan, Manila. Their short ‘as if nothing happened’ competed at the London Short Film Festival 2022 and was included in CNN’s Best Filipino Films of 2020. They were an alumnus of Ricky Lee’s Screenwriting Workshop, Mowelfund Film Institute, and Film Futura.
CURATOR MARTIN GENODEPA
Martin Genodepa is an artist-teacher-cultural worker. He does sculpture and installations and had solo exhibitions in venues such as Hiraya Gallery, Alliance Francais, Red Mill Gallery, UPV Art Gallery, Museo Iloilo, the Bulwagang Fernando Amorsolo (Small Gallery) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the NCCA Gallery.
He was instrumental in setting up the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA) serving as its first Museum Director from 2017 through 2018. In 2022 he completed the establishment of the UPV Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage (UPV MACH) through a grant from the Commission on Higher Education.
He served as Secretary of the National Committee on Visual Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (1998-2001). He was one of the Volume Editors of Pananaw 8 Journal of Philippine Visual Arts. He was also Editor of the book Kadagatan Tubtub Kabukidan Traditional Knowledge Systems of Panay and Guimaras. He sat as Bureau Member for Southeast Asia in the Asia-Pacific Higher Education Network for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage from 2019-2022.
He was recipient of a full grant from the Freeman Fellowship for Asian Artists and became artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center (USA) in 1999, the UP Outstanding Professional in the Visual Arts in 2008, the Ford Foundation International Fellowship in 2009-2011, the UP Artist I productivity award for 2018-2020, and the One UP Professorial Chair Award for Creative Work and Public Service for 2022-2024.
Currently, he is the Director of the UP Visayas Office of Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA).
FILM PROGRAMMER ELVERT BAÑARES
Elvert Bañares is a filmmaker, film programmer, cultural worker, educator and multidisciplinary artist. His films and art have been selected in more than 200 international film festivals in 40+ countries across 5 continents. Winner of the URIAN Award (2023) and three CCP Awards for Independent Film, he has participated in festivals like the Academy Award qualifying Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, FANTASPORTO (Portugal), CURTAS - Festival do Imaxinario (Spain), Festival de Cine Global de Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Prague Quadrennial (Czech Republic), Tokyo International Film Festival, (Japan), Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (Indonesia) and the São Paulo International Short Film Festival (Brazil). His new films have won him the Top Awards at the 13th Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival (Malaysia), 10th La Paz International Film Festival (Bolivia), 6th Ojo Movil Fest (Peru), 13th Encuentro Cinéfagos - Festival De Cinearte En La Frontera (Venezuela) and the 11th Wasteland Film Festival (USA), a Burning-man-esque film fest.
Elvert has programmed regional and underappreciated Filipino films for Antimatter Media Art (then Antimatter Underground Film Festival, Victoria, British Columbia), Inside Out Toronto Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (Canada), Cinemanila International Film Festival (Philippines); and for venues like the Metropolitan Museum, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Yuchengco Museum, 911 Media Arts Center, FDCP's Cinematheque Centre Manila among others, giving spaces to unknown and underrepresented filmmakers from the Western Visayan region since 1990s, way before others did .
He established the first and only Regional Film Grants Program outside Metro Manila and pioneering festivals like eKsperim[E]nto Festival of Film & New Media, CineKasimanwa: Western Visayas Film Festival, Sine Halaga and Bakunawa Fest - the first fantastic film festival in the Philippines.