LAV DIAZ: JOURNEYS

Symposium, Screenings & Artist's Talks

University of Westminster – Harrow and Regent campuses

Friday 3 - Tuesday 7 March 2017

On Saturday 4 March the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) will host the first international symposium exploring the significance of Diaz’s films and mode of artistic practice. The symposium features theoretical and practice research on Diaz’s works. It signals the importance of a multidisciplinary frame for thinking about Diaz’s aesthetics and practice; in terms of both their singularity and their location, ground and context.
 Speakers range from those working in film theory and criticism, film-philosophy, curatorial practice, anthropology and political theory. Divergent presentations will reflect on the challenges that Diaz’s works pose to the conceptualisation of cinematic temporality, space, materiality, spectatorship and realism; and to theorisation of the limit and potential of the idea of cinema in the digital age. A key aim of the symposium is to establish compelling new avenues for placing Diaz’s artistic practice. Beyond contextualising Diaz’s practice and the aesthetics of his films in relation to the political history of the Philippines, speakers will suggest points of connection with diasporic and migratory flows, art history, metaphysics, and ritual forms. The symposium will also approach Diaz’s works and practice with a view to identifying moments and methods for tracing regional resonance and articulating global concerns.

The symposium coincides with the final week of the exhibition LAV DIAZ: JOURNEYS at London Gallery West, incorporating special screenings and artist’s talks. The Woman Who Left, Diaz’s Golden Lion prize-winner from the Venice Film Festival, will screen twice daily at the gallery, Friday 3 – Sunday 12 March. A rare 35mm screening of the first of Diaz’s major works, Batang West Side, will take place at Regent Street Cinema on Sunday 5 March. We are thrilled to announce that the artist will be present. He will also be in conversation with the exhibition curators in the Discourse Space at London Gallery West on Tuesday 7 March.

SYMPOSIUM:

Saturday 4 March, 10:00 – 18:00

Room UG05, Regent Campus, 309 Regent Street, W1B 2UW

09.30 Registration, tea and coffee

10.00 Introduction

10.15 – 11.30 Panel 1

Eva Bentcheva (SOAS), ‘Reading Lav Diaz’s Films through Philippine Visual Art History’

Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn (QMUL), ‘Lav Diaz: Suggestions for Future Studies from Ecological Perspective’

Discussant, Michael Maziere (University of Westminster)

11.30 – 12.45 Panel 2

Michael Guarneri (Northumbria University), ‘Freedom is a Long Shot: Lav Diaz and the Never-Ending Struggle of the "Native Intellectual"’

William Brown (University of Roehampton), ‘Evolution of a Filipino Family and/as Non-Cinema’

Discussant, Michael Goddard (University of Westminster)

12.45 – 14.00 Lunch 

14.00 – 15.15 Panel 3

Parichay Patra (independent scholar), ‘Jesus, Magdalene and the Filipino Judas: Lav Diaz and his ‘Artless’ Epics’

Cristina Juan (SOAS), ‘Lav and the Linambay: Catholic-Animist Aesthetics and the Films of Lav Diaz’

Discussant, Julian Ross (University of Westminster)

15.15 – 16.30 Panel 4

Rebecca Shatwell (AV Festival), ‘As Slow as Possible: Lav Diaz at AV Festival’

May Adadol Ingawanij (University of Westminster), ‘Art, Life and Nation Once Again’

Discussant, Lucy Reynolds (University of Westminster)

16.30 – 16.45 Tea and coffee

16.45 – 18.00 Book project presentation by Parichay Patra and roundtable discussion

18.00 Drinks reception

SCREENINGS:

The Woman Who Left (2016, 226 minutes)

Friday 3 March – Sunday 12 March, 10:00 and 15:00 daily

London Gallery West, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3TP

Inspired by Tolstoy’s God Sees the Truth, But Waits. A woman wrongly imprisoned is released after 30 years and goes in search of the man who put her there.

Free, open to all – no booking required. More information at https://www.westminster.ac.uk/london-gallery-west

Special 35mm cinema screening of Batang West Side (2001, 315 minutes) followed by Q&A with Lav Diaz

Sunday 5 March, 13:00

Regent Street Cinema, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW

A young Filipino-American is shot dead on West Side Avenue in Jersey City. A detective, himself a Filipino, carries out an investigation that turns into an examination of the soul of the Filipino diaspora. The newly color-corrected 35mm print was created by the Austrian Film Museum and Synchro Film, Video & Audio laboratory in Vienna, in close collaboration with Lav Diaz – and in memory of Alexis Tioseco (1981-2009) & Nika Bohinc (1979-2009). This special screening will be followed by a Q&A with Lav Diaz in person.

ARTIST'S TALK:

Tuesday 7 March, 14:00

Discourse Space, London Gallery West, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3TP

Diaz and the exhibition curators in conversation about his new film The Woman Who Left.

Free, open to all. No booking required.

Please note that events take place across two campuses - Regent and Harrow. Check each listing for details.

Please contact a.leeman@westminster.ac.uk with any questions or for further information.