Droga!
USA, THE PHILIPPINES / 2014 / Tagalog / B&W / Blu-ray (Original: Super 8mm) / 8 min
Director, Photography, Editing, Sound, Music, Narration: Miko Revereza
Production Company: Cine Droga
World Sales: Los Otros Films
www.los-otros.com
In Los Angeles, the raison d'etre of a Filipino local captured through a mix of American culture and Tagalog language. Degraded video, a youth engulfed in noise, the ringing of Tagalog’s footfalls, a grandmother’s figure on video tape, the repeating rhythm of chaos—with these images, we peer into the director’s mind, etched into Super 8 film.
[Director’s Statement] This was in many ways my first work confronting post-colonial Filipino American identity. This film was influenced by the Manila-based community of experimental filmmakers whom I befriended at the time, and who have since become close friends and collaborators.
It was shot on Super 8 film while I was an Artist-in-Residence at the Echo Park Film Center.
Disintegration 93–96
USA, THE PHILIPPINES / 2017 / English, Tagalog / Color, B&W / Blu-ray / 6 min
Director, Photography, Editing, Sound, Music, Narration: Miko Revereza
Production Company: Cine Droga
World Sales: Los Otros Films
www.los-otros.com
Home videos taken in the 1990s—when the director and his family emigrated from the Philippines to Los Angeles—ooze with unease and longing for home. And now. This video letter from the director's father to his family in the Philippines exposes an existence in America that has "dis-integrated." The images are overlaid with the voice of the director who was raised here, speaking American English like a ghost, coming together to make a film that forges forward at full speed at the viewer.
[Director’s Statement] To be an undocumented immigrant in America is a performance.
I am now exhausted of this performance.
Miko Revereza
Miko Revereza is an award-winning experimental film and video artist based in Los Angeles. Since relocating from Manila as a child, he has lived illegally in the United States, for over twenty years. This struggle, and his exile from his homeland have influenced the content of Miko’s personal films, which explore themes of diaspora, colonialism and Americanization. He also makes music videos and live video art installations for LA’s experimental music scene.