John Gianvito’s For Example, The Philippines

WAKE (SUBIC)
December 10, 2016, 5:00 PM

Directed by: John Gianvito

Synopsis: Wake (Subic) is the second part of Gianvito’s documentary diptych entitled For Example, the Philippines, coming after Vapor Trail (Clark), which screened at the HFA in 2010. That film detailed the violence and destruction wrought in the Philippines by focusing on the environmental damage left after the closing of Clark Air Base, where toxic waste has contributed to elevated rates of birth defects and fatal diseases. As the diptych’s title explains, the Philippines serves here as but one example among many of the ruinous and corrosive impacts of American foreign policy—and unchecked militarism more generally—that Gianvito could have chosen, the proper history of which remains still largely ignored today. Gianvito’s work is a furious strike against that ignorance. – David Pendleton, Harvard Film Archive

Watch trailer here: