Nosaj Thing + Kazu Makino + Daito Manabe = :)!

This is in my aunt Esther’s house in Bulacan – just outside Metro Manila. As soon as we got there – my aunt Gloria and my mother changed into aunt Esther’s house dresses. It was pretty funny to see all 3 of them sitting around with the dresses on. My aunt Gloria was aware of my video taping and was trying to get me to stop because she was not properly dressed for the camera.

3 Sisters from teknevision on Vimeo.

On my way to a manicure shop in Manila, I couldn’t help but notice a moving swirl on the ground. Upon closer inspection, this is what I saw.

In the Philippines After 12 years, Part 3 from teknevision on Vimeo.

I went back to the Philippines after 12 years. A lot has changed, mainly the population growth in Manila. However, some things seem to remain largely the same and are very much a staple in Filipino culture, like the jitneys and tricycles.

I wanted to convey a variation in perspective. The following examples convey 3 different types of experiences:

1) A general perspective as a traveler in a land that is both strangely familiar, yet entirely foreign to me in many ways.

2) A rather microscopic perspective that comes when you (literally) bend down to notice the details.

3) An intimate perspective – the one with family, behind closed doors.

How much of any of these are similar or different? And to what degree is their familiarity or foreign-ness altered had I experienced them somewhere else in the world?

In the Philippines After 12 years, Part 1 from teknevision on Vimeo.

In the Philippines After 12 years, Part 4 from teknevision on Vimeo.

Surma: The Ukranian Shop from vision tekne on Vimeo.

This is a mini documentary Xue Hou, Tom Rossini & I created for our Video for New Media class. Our original idea was to interview someone and get him/her to tell us how the East Village has changed over the years. I thought of this guy that owns an ice cream/newspaper storefront on Avenue A. I think he’s been around at least 20-25 years, probably a lot more.

We decided to go with a Ukrianian American family that owns a building on Tom’s block on E. 7th St. Coincidentally, I actually lived in that very building some 10 years ago, but my stay there was brief and I didn’t get to know the owner and family at all.

We shot about 2.5 hours of footage and the idea was to mesh the generational perspectives into a creative and possibly abstract descriptive piece. One of them had mentioned how the church down the street had changed over the decades and when we went over to shoot it, unwittingly discovered The Ukrianian Shop across the street. I’ve been down that block so many times over many years – and I never once really noticed it.

After realizing our idea would take way too much time to go through and edit, more time than we had before it was due – we decided to document the shop. We figured it’d be like a little news piece. We got most everything in 35 minutes + photos we took and some others online.

The shop is pretty awesome inside. It’s been around since 1918 and in it’s current location at 11 E. 7th st since the 1940s or 1950s.