ACES // Artists of Color Expo & Symposium 2022

A collection of short films and video art by innovative local filmmakers.

Dear Nanay (3:24)
Directed by Frances Grace Mortel
A love letter to her grandmother -- this experimental documentary explores the filmmaker's early memories in the Philippines -- and her search for refuge from pandemic anxiety and domestic claustrophobia.

How, What, Receive, Accept (6:49)
Directed by Jia Jia
I realize that fact is not what you read in books or what you see in social medias when I found the definition of “the free world” on the Oxford America Dictionary. To know facts, you need to trust your senses and bodies. Seeing is believing. The word definitions in dictionaries feel like the data results on the Google Form. Dictionary includes the definition of countless words which help us to understand the meaning of that vocabulary before we feel it, but it does not belong to the real meaning of that word under different eras. Pork is considered as dirty meat in Chinese since it eats everything to feed itself. Stuffing it inside the dictionary is a way to question its authority and push people to challenge the immutable definition of up-to-date vocabularies in the world.

Deep In It (1:47)
Directed by Kamari Bright
This videopoem, created for the "My Bae: America" exhibit, answers the question "If you were dating America, what would your relationship look like?".

Still Fight 
Directed by Jia Jia

Farang Kee Nok (Bird Sh!t Foreigner) (1:58)
Directed by May Maylisa Cat
“Farang Kee-Nok (Bird Sh!t Foreigner)” explores the societal disregard for cultural sensitivity through a faux reality TV style. This absurdist presentation touches on the hypocrisy of ex-pats who fetishize the cultures of the countries they move to, and the way they tend to insert themselves into cultural matters that they have no authority speaking on.

Looking Glass (2:15)
Directed by Kamari Bright
Inspired by the recently increased publicity of police brutality through social media channels, "Looking Glass v. Self" highlights the influence of negative media imagery on perception, identity formation, and mental health.

_stifle(s)_ (3:00)
Directed by Jia Jia

Swept under the rug (2:56)
Directed by Marlena Wilding
I created this when I was in my early 20's, when I was diving deeper into the history of my ancestors. The history that still bleeds in the soil. The history that far too often is "swept under the rug."

Horror & Its Uni Verse (8:08)
Directed by May Maylisa Cat
Horror & Its Uni Verse employs horror conventions and glitch with audio and video projections to critique online monetization and capitalism from the perspective of a scene that is incredibly reminiscent of the COVID-19 era.

Royaltee (1:07)
Directed by Kamari Bright
"Royaltee" is a videopoem touching on identity & reclamation utilizing Black fashion to highlight the nobility of Black culture enacted by Black bodies.