SUMMER INTENSIVE 3: LIRYC DELA CRUZ

July 3 at 5:00 pm at the Spanish Academy in Rome.

In the third session of the summer intensive of In qualche luogo lontano: Roma (In Some Far Place: Roma), Liryc Dela Cruz presents On Endings and The Search for the Memories of the Beginning – Ang Paghahanap sa Alaala ng Simula.

In qualche luogo lontano: Roma is the title of the program that takes place in Rome within Space is The Place/The Place is Space. This research project, initiated by Bulegoa z/b in 2018, aims to analyse the role of art as a critical practice that offers tools to stop, look and position oneself in the world, to generate situations and imagine ways of living and producing space. Structured through periodic meetings, it takes various forms, such as presentations, reading sessions, walks, actions on the territory and various artistic productions.

ON ENDINGS AND THE SEARCH FOR THE MEMORIES OF THE BEGINNING – ANG PAGHAHANAP SA ALAALA NG SIMULA. TWO FILMS BY LIRYC DELA CRUZ

On Endings (Italy, Philippines. 2020, 82 min)

Black and white shots impregnated with the melancholy of an abandoned city and some houses, in which time lengthens and gives rise to a space for reflection and contemplation. It is the intimate statement of the filmmaker from isolation, while reading the letters of a mother who longs for her son, whom she has not seen for four years. Words full of tenderness, pain and religious conviction mix memories of the past with faith in the moments they will spend together in the future. In the texts, spoken in a quiet voice, light and darkness contrast, as in the captivating shots full of chiaroscuro. Without plot, or dialogue, or tension, the film is offered for the quiet contemplation of the spectators.

Ang Paghahanap sa Alaala ng Simula (The Search for Memories of the Beginning) (Philippines, 2016)

In 1521, Spain colonized the Philippines. This colonization caused nearly 300 years of suffering, destruction, and pain that resonate to this day. The Search for Memories of the Beginning is a dream within a nightmare, an examination of the incessant search in history for memories and fragments of the identity of the Filipinos lost during the dark years of Spanish colonizations. This film also questions the value of the intersection of the histories of Spain and the Philippines today, and the way we deal with it.

Liryc Dela Cruz (1992). A filmmaker and artist from Tupi, Cotabato del Sur in Mindanao, Philippines, currently based in Rome, Italy. His works have been selected and screened at different international film festivals and artistic events in Locarno, Berlinale, New York, Taiwan, etc. His films are thematically related to his origins, history and personal psychology. He has been a contributor to Philippine independent filmmaker Lav Diaz and a student of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In 2020, he was selected as one of the Young Emerging Filmmakers at Berlinale Talents at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. Recently, Dela Cruz was selected by the Teatro di Roma to participate in the INFRA Project for 2020-2021. He has also received the 2020 Artissima and Torino Social Impact Art Award, for his project Il Mio Filippino: To Those Who Care To Feel, a project that focuses on the invisibility of Filipino domestic workers in Italy and other territories. Dela Cruz and his project Il Mio Filippino have been selected by the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, France, for their 2022 residency program.

In qualche luogo lontano: Roma is a project carried out within the framework of the MAEC-AECID Scholarships for Art, Education and Culture for the academic year 2020-2021 within the scholarship program for the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome.