Give as a gift
“Everyday I’m reminded
that the reason I even have a voice
is because my story has never been just mine.
It has always belonged to the village
A family heirloom from my ancestors
who fought for their lives so that I can fight for ours.
This is how I know that more than anything
our stories have the power to change everything.
Why else would this country delight in our silence
and be content with leaving our history out of the narrative?”
-excerpt from the poem AAPIs Rising by Terisa Siagatonu
The works in this exhibition engage with the complexity of community and history while pushing boundaries that invite us to reimagine other realities. There is anticipation in these works, a gesture rooted in the joy that a liberatory future that’s expansive, decolonial, and gender-free is within reach. There are many of us dreaming and creating a world where social justice, queer identities, and other fundamental rights and social rights and opportunities exist more than not. Yet, despite a world so severe and unsparing, we can continue to look to our stories, songs, paintings, and poems to create maps and imagined spaces where no one asks permission to exist. Perhaps in these works, we can perfect the creation of counter systems that offer healing balms for those of us that need to leave behind a wearying past or present. Can we be reminded that it is possible to center well-being and that we can value and normalize healing scenarios in our daily lives? Beyond the ethnic cheerleading that tower over these observances, this exhibit asks its viewer to look through the lens of these Filipinx artists articulating a different world that might be around the corner.
In addition to the short films included in the collection, we invite you to watch the PBS American Masters film Maia Cruz Palileo: Becoming the Moon: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/maia-cruz-palileo-becoming-the-moon/15825/.
Guest Curator: Irene Soriano
After throwing up a flower, Lily seeks help from her mother and learns she may have inherited a disease called Hanahaki – a form of unrequited love.
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Writer-director M.G. Evangelista (they/she) was born in Manila and raised in the Bay Area. Their NYU thesis short film, FRAN THIS SUMMER, is an LGBTQ summer love story that premiered at Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest before playing in thirty film festivals worldwide. Other short works, INA NYO, LA GLORIA, BLOOD HANA, and VR piece WATER MELTS, have also played internationally, including at Toronto's Inside Out, Rotterdam, Miami, and Palm Springs. Their debut feature film, BURNING WELL, currently in development, has just been invited to attend the renowned Torino Feature Film Lab 2022. It is a recipient of the Tribeca All Access grant, a WIF x Sundance Finance Intensive Fellowship, and an Array x Google production grant. IG: https://www.instagram.com/graceinthematrix
- Runtime15 minutes
- DirectorM.G. Evangelista
- ScreenwriterM.G. Evangelista, Lexington Rivera
- ProducerCecilia Meija, Flo Mitchell Brown
- CastEmily Jamel, Emily Bessa
- CinematographerInes Gowland
- EditorKarishma Dube
“Everyday I’m reminded
that the reason I even have a voice
is because my story has never been just mine.
It has always belonged to the village
A family heirloom from my ancestors
who fought for their lives so that I can fight for ours.
This is how I know that more than anything
our stories have the power to change everything.
Why else would this country delight in our silence
and be content with leaving our history out of the narrative?”
-excerpt from the poem AAPIs Rising by Terisa Siagatonu
The works in this exhibition engage with the complexity of community and history while pushing boundaries that invite us to reimagine other realities. There is anticipation in these works, a gesture rooted in the joy that a liberatory future that’s expansive, decolonial, and gender-free is within reach. There are many of us dreaming and creating a world where social justice, queer identities, and other fundamental rights and social rights and opportunities exist more than not. Yet, despite a world so severe and unsparing, we can continue to look to our stories, songs, paintings, and poems to create maps and imagined spaces where no one asks permission to exist. Perhaps in these works, we can perfect the creation of counter systems that offer healing balms for those of us that need to leave behind a wearying past or present. Can we be reminded that it is possible to center well-being and that we can value and normalize healing scenarios in our daily lives? Beyond the ethnic cheerleading that tower over these observances, this exhibit asks its viewer to look through the lens of these Filipinx artists articulating a different world that might be around the corner.
In addition to the short films included in the collection, we invite you to watch the PBS American Masters film Maia Cruz Palileo: Becoming the Moon: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/maia-cruz-palileo-becoming-the-moon/15825/.
Guest Curator: Irene Soriano
After throwing up a flower, Lily seeks help from her mother and learns she may have inherited a disease called Hanahaki – a form of unrequited love.
------------
Writer-director M.G. Evangelista (they/she) was born in Manila and raised in the Bay Area. Their NYU thesis short film, FRAN THIS SUMMER, is an LGBTQ summer love story that premiered at Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest before playing in thirty film festivals worldwide. Other short works, INA NYO, LA GLORIA, BLOOD HANA, and VR piece WATER MELTS, have also played internationally, including at Toronto's Inside Out, Rotterdam, Miami, and Palm Springs. Their debut feature film, BURNING WELL, currently in development, has just been invited to attend the renowned Torino Feature Film Lab 2022. It is a recipient of the Tribeca All Access grant, a WIF x Sundance Finance Intensive Fellowship, and an Array x Google production grant. IG: https://www.instagram.com/graceinthematrix
- Runtime15 minutes
- DirectorM.G. Evangelista
- ScreenwriterM.G. Evangelista, Lexington Rivera
- ProducerCecilia Meija, Flo Mitchell Brown
- CastEmily Jamel, Emily Bessa
- CinematographerInes Gowland
- EditorKarishma Dube