C is for Manuel Conde, A-Z of Filipino Cultural Exports
Patrick Flores, Curator of the Filipino Pavilion at ‘The 56th Venice Biennial’ presents ‘Tie A String Around the World’, a group exhibition featuring 4 Filipino artists including, Manuel Conde, Carlos Francisco, Manny Montelibano and Jose Tence Ruiz (2 living/ 2 deceased). Positioning the Philippines transition to modernity, through contemporary artistic practice, Flores’ title points to dialogue from Manuel Conde’s ‘Ghenghis Khan’ (1950). ‘Surveying his dominion at the end of the seminal film, Genghis Khan professes to his beloved that he would tie a string around the world and lay it at her feet, a gesture of intense affection, of breathtaking hubris’.
Manuel Conde (1915- 1985), Filipino actor, director and producer is a true Filipino cultural export. With support from writer-critic James Agee (USA), ‘Ghenghis Khan’ , a biopic of emperor of the Mongol Empire (1206 – 1368) was re-edited, narrated and translated to 16 languages. Conde was the first Filipino artist filmmaker to compete at The Venice Film Festival, with ‘Ghenghis Khan’ showing 60 years earlier, in 1952. Spanning 90 minutes in length, the work has been digitally re-mastered for The Venice Biennial. A viewing copy exists on youtube, but for art’s sake I have decided to abstain.
A review of ‘The Cinema of Manuel Conde’ by Nicanor G. Tiongson (2008) can be assessed at Rolando Tolentino’s independent blog. According to Filipino Wiki Conde’s practice examined ‘Filipino cultural history, depicted and critiqued local customs and traditions, foregrounded and examined contemporary political and social issues, employed but innovated on the commercial genres of his time, and opened Filipino cinema to the world’. A definite highlight for Venice 2015.
#OFW more than a country of good looking, half-wit, opportunistic terrorists
