The American Export project, in Association with CREAM presents:
A screening of works by Tito & Tita and collective member, Gym Lumbera. Often working with formats such as Super 8 and 16mm, their films interrogate the possibilities of photographic media and its various histories. Films include Class Picture (Dirs. Tito and Tita, 2012), Anak Araw (dir. Gym Lumbera, 2012)
A Q&A with Gym Lumbera led by Dr May Adadol Ingawanji (moving image theorist, historian, curator and Co-Director of CREAM) follows the screening.
Anak Araw follows a Filipino albino
who searches for his identity in an imaginary past. Believing he is of American
descent he teaches himself English using a Tagalog-English dictionary. Set in
the 1950s, the film integrates original celluloid footage with archive material
to create a unique, dreamlike atmosphere in which the filmmaker explores the
nature of identity in a postcolonial situation.
Gym Lumbera was born in a quaint
town in Batangas, Philippines by a lake that had a volcano right at its heart.
Lumbera’s place of birth and the depth with which his connections to it run
threads through all of his films from his early shorts to his last feature, Anak Araw (2012). He is a recipient of
the Ani ng Dangal National Award for Cinema 2012 from the President of the
Philippines.
Tito & Tita are a film and art
collective. Through installation, film, photography and collective actions they
explore the spatial, architectural, performative, and cinematic elements
of image- making, often working with small-gauge film formats such as Super 8
and 16 mm. Their name Tito & Tita is Tagalog for ‘uncle and aunts’,
suggesting an informal network of artist collaborators. Along with Gym Lumbera
the network’s current incarnation includes filmmakers Shireen Seno and Timmy Harn, production designer, Jacyn Esquillon,
cinematographer, Jippy Pascua and artist Charles Salazar.
Tito & Tita and Gym Lumbera have featured in various festivals, institutions and artist-run spaces including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Toronto International Film Festival, Documenta (13), Tate Modern (London), M+ (Hong Kong), MoMA and The Museum of the Moving Image (New York).
This event is part of American Export a programme of projects exploring the ubiquity of American culture via post colonial and transatlantic prisms. Curated by Christina Millare, American Export is developed with support from CREAM at the University of Westminster, Grand Union and Arts Council England.
https://www.regentstreetcinema.com/programme/tito-tita-gym-lumbera-and-an-imagined-past/
