About

A deeply personal blend of documentary and fiction, Marlon Fuentes’s Bontoc Eulogy is an extraordinary example of cinematic autoethnography. Fuentes explores his relationship with his own Filipino heritage by examining the 1904 World Fair in St Louis, in which his 'grandfather' Markod was put on display alongside more than one thousand other Filipino people, as part of a 'living exhibition' intended for American audiences. In investigating the fate of Markod, Fuentes blurs past and present, fusing archival footage, contemporary recreations, and historical photographs to create a textured depiction of the cultural destruction that colonialism can wreak and the ellipses it imposes on history and collective memory.

"I believe that history is really an art of memory. The gaps and ellipses are just as important as the materials we have in our hands. If they are missing for certain reasons, whether by accident or force of omission, perhaps these irregularities force us to reflect on the nature and origins of our own situation." Marlon Fuentes

Ages 15+