We are thrilled to welcome filmmaker and curator Shireen Seno (Japan/Philippines) back to VSW to show a program of her recent films, along with selections she has made from the VSW 16mm film collection. In 2017, Seno presented a program of Experimental Film and Video from the Philippines in the VSW Film Series, and has returned to VSW in 2023 as Project Space resident.  Seno is an artist and filmmaker whose work addresses memory, history, and image-making, often in relation to the idea of home. Her 2021 video essay, To Pick a Flower, explores the transformation and commodification of nature through archival photographs from the American colonial occupation of the Philippines in the first half of the 20th century.

On Saturday, May 27th, Seno will present her feature film, Nervous Translation, at the Dryden Theater.

Purchase tickets here

Program:

The Life of a Plant: About Flowers 
1974, 10 min, color, 16mm
A well loved film from the Reynolds Library collection in the VSW Film/Video archive.

To Pick a Flower
Shireen Seno, 2021, 17 min, color/B&W, HD
A video essay incorporating archival photographs from the American Colonial Era in the Philippines (1898–1946), exploring the sticky relationship between humans and nature and its entanglements with empire.

Trunks
Shireen Seno, 2012, 1 min, B&W, Super 8 transferred to video
A short piece depicting the encounters of various trunks.

Wild Green Things in the City
Geode Films, 1975, 10 min, color, 16mm
Two children explore green spaces found in various locations throughout New York City. From the Reynolds Library collection in the VSW Film/Video archive.

a child dies, a child plays, a woman is born, a woman dies, a bird arrives, a bird flies off
(Arcade 4Walls edition)
Shireen Seno, 2022, 18 min, color, HD video
This is one iteration of a project that aims to bring together a mix of local and migratory birds in the Philippines, migrating across different generations of moving image media. Birds are like role models for humans – they find ways to survive by various means across varied terrain. This Arcade 4Walls edition was a commissioned piece originally installed on the media facade of the Asia Culture Center building in Gwangju, South Korea.

Shotgun Tuding
Shireen Seno, 2014, Philippines/Malaysia, 16 min, Super 16mm transferred to HD, color
Inspired by family hearsay, this film is also a homage to the Pancit Western – the Filipino counterpart of the Spaghetti Western.

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The VSW Salon is programmed by Tara Merenda Nelson, taranelson@vsw.org

The VSW Salon is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts and by the ArtWorks program of the National Endowment for the Arts.

         

TO PICK A FLOWER EXCERPT from Los Otros on Vimeo.