

Colonialism hit the Philippines, and somehow we got movies out of it. Wild.
Film: American Beginnings of Philippine Cinema is the second episode in Deocampo's evolving saga of the country's history of Philippine cinema. Based on his recent book, Film: American Influences on Philippine Cinema, this 3D-animated documentary ventures from Escolta through Avenida as we discover how film came to be in the Philippines.
Direction
Deocampo's obsessive archival passion carries every frame.
Production
3D animation brings dead Escolta streets eerily alive.

Director
Nick Deocampo
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Deocampo spent decades excavating these archives; the 'American Beginnings' thesis deliberately re-centres U.S. imperialism as the engine of Filipino film culture.
This is part of an ongoing scholarly reclamation project—Deocampo's essentially building a counter-canon against the Hollywood-dominated narrative of Asian cinema.
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