Examining the 100th anniversary of the Philippine-American War, media artist glenda drew collaborated with Media Alliance, youth from Filipinos for Affirmative Action, and choreographer Pearl Ubungen of Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians to create “Makibaka!,” an interactive CD-ROM incorporating video footage of contemporary public performances, oral histories, and other historical information.
“Makibaka!” means struggle in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines; and the CD-ROM explores cultural memory of and resistance to the United States’ invasion and occupation of the Philippines. It was developed concurrently with Ubungen’s major site-specific performance, Tagulaylay/The Presidio .
glenda drew and Pearl Ubungen came together through Media Alliance, a training and resource center dedicated to fostering a diversity of media voices and perspectives. They envisioned a project in which Filipino American youth would create a dance performance and a CD-ROM that would record and express the cultural history of elders who lived through crucial moments in Filipino and Filipino American history. Filipinos for Affirmative Action (FAA), which has extensive experience organizing Filipino-American youth, convened high school-age participants who learned oral history methods and Filipino history alongside the lead artists.
Lead artist glenda drew is a mediographer who has created CD-ROMs, videos, and installations exploring a wide variety of topics. She is committed to developing media and technological capacity among marginalized communities.
Pearl Ubungen is a choreographer whose work addresses contemporary social topics through an innovative use of post-modern dance, theater, text, popular culture, and original live music. She founded and was director of the Pearl Ubungen Dancers and Musicians, whose projects included Refugee , an outdoor site-specific piece designed for United Nations Plaza in San Francisco’s Civic Center.