Overseas Filipino Workers, an A-Z of Cultural Exports

B is for Lino Brocka, A-Z of Filipino Cultural Exports

Lino Brocka (1939–1991) is a celebrated Filipino Filmmaker, producing more than 50 films in a short career spanning barley 20 years. Working between commercial and experimental film, at his finest Brocka captured the social realist conditions which the Philippines suffered under President Marcos’ martial law. Ironically, after death in 1991, Brocka was bestowed an order of ‘National Artists of the Philippines’ for film – initiated by the very government he set out to criticise. Brocka’s critique on Filipino politics extended beyond aesthetics, he was a political activist and in doing so initiated a collective critical platform for artists to air social/ political concern, known as the ‘Concerned Artists Phillipines’.

I discovered Lino Brocka by chance, whilst flicking throught the MOMA Film Collection handbook. A film still from Brocka’s ‘Bona’ (1980) grabbed my attention (above), without reading any labels – I felt it to be distinctly Filipino. The stunning woman in the photo held the same familiar yet distinctivley unique look of concern which I associate to my Filipino mother, when displeased. Unfortunately ‘Bona’ and Lino Brocka’s other works are not widely distributed (nor available with English subtitles), despite being accessioned into the MOMA collection and championed by the influential Pierre Rissient – ‘man of cinema’.

#OFW more than a country of good looking, half-wit, opportunistic terrorists

A is for Pio Abad, A-Z of Filipino Cultural Exports

Pio Abad (b. 1983) is a contemporary visual artist living and working in London. Originally from Manilla, Abad left the Phillipines, for Scotland in 2004 to continue his studies in Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art.

Pio Abad’s practice is in dialogue with his native homeland, as seen in recent exhibition at Gasworks, London (2014). ‘Some Are Smarter Than Others’ looks at the cultural legacy of former Filipino dictators Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos: from the post-colonial mythology they promoted in public to the extravagant collections they surreptitiously amassed during their years in power. The title of the exhibition and cover of the adjoining publication is taken from ‘Some are Smarter than Others: The History of Marcos’ Crony Capitalism’, by Ricardo Manapat, 1991.

An accompanying text written by Abad, reveals the artist conceptual reasoning behind the selection of reproduced images in the show and consequently the personal impact it had on his father, who was appointed as Secretary of Agricultural Reform in 1990. More detail can be found about this exhibition on the Gasworks website.

#OFW more than a country of good looking, half-wit, opportunistic terrorists