Wednesday, July 30, 2014 6:30 PM
Asia Society
725 Park Ave, New York, NY 10021
THE COTABATO SESSIONS
A music-meets-cinema collaboration with composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra and director Joel Quizon, THE COTABATO SESSIONS is a documentary of the musical legacy of National Heritage artist, Danongan Kalanduyan and his family of Cotabato City in Mindanao, The Philippines.
Practitioners of the indigenous art form known as kulintang (rhythmic gong ensemble music) and the colorful dance that often accompanies it revering the Kalanduyan family as respected elders upholding the tradition. Kulintang known as a feminine instrument has a unique history of crossing Philippine Indigenous matriarchal society and Muslim cultures. The film features this legacy through the Kalanduyan’s performing art practice.
Featuring musical performances captured both for the camera and for the audio, THE COTABATO SESSIONS is a uniquely intimate music documentary in its droll and observant way. The film manages to create a poetic, celebratory work that foregrounds the practitioners of this signature Philippine art form and ponders its future in the contemporary society. The film is followed by a music and dance featuring Danongan Kalanduyan and artists of the Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble performing Taggunggo, Sagayan and Pangalay, as well as Kalanduyan joining Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez’s percussion duet, Electric Kulintang’s to perform from their new release Drum Codes.
The event is co-presented with and co-sponsored by Asia Society.
For more information about the film, please visit:
http://aaiff.org