G is for John Gianvito, A-Z of Filipino Cultural Exports
Not strictly a Filipino Cultural Export, an exception has been made for US essay filmmaker John Gianvito, in gratitude to his 2010 film ‘Vapor Trail (Clark)’.
‘Vapor Trail (Clark)’ recently showed at the Tate Modern, in February 2015, as part of ‘Conflict, Time, Photography’, an exhibition surveying 150 years of conflict around the world. Gianvito’s ‘cinema of urgency’ examines the effects of war, on the Filipino’s 108 years after the US / Philippine war between 1899–1902. Working within the principles of Cinema Verite, Gianvito’s 4 ½ hour, essay film ‘combines interviews, historical texts and landscape photography to unravel the crippling effects of distant conflicts and legacy of colonialism on the present day’.
John Gianvito’s ‘cinema of urgency’ – I suppose it’s fair to say I’ve become, or at least aspire to be, some kind of agitator. I seek an agit-prop cinema in the original non-pejorative sense of the term—agitating emotions and propagating thoughts. As I see it, the world we find ourselves enmeshed in demands a cinema of urgency as opposed to the cinema of distraction and alienation.
Many of the Filipino artists, especially filmmakers that I have discovered through delivering this blog, are focused on delivering a truth through the lens of social realism. In order to understand the current political climate, a good deal of historical knowledge is required – which is not readily available throughout libraries, schools or mainstream press.
In an online video interview John Gianvito discusses his approach in making ‘Vapor Trail (Clark)’, through building online relations with Filipino indie media activist collective – ‘Peoples task force, for basis clean up’. Over a period of time, through sustained contact, both online and face time, Gianvito was able to gain the collective’s trust. He was thus granted access to a network of activists, where together they dedicated themselves in exposing the USA government for leaving behind a colonial trail of misery – the effects of which are still felt in the present day.
#OFW more than a country of good looking, half-wit, opportunistic terrorists
