ArtSpeak: Film Screening & Talkback with Angel Velasco Shaw, Rica Concepcion, Myra Beltran, and Abbie SJ Lara

Join the Ateneo Art Gallery for a film screening of Egay Navarro and Rica Concepcion’s “Shaman Showman: The Life and Work of Roberto Villanueva,” a documentary film on the life of Baguio artist Roberto Villanueva, to be followed by a talkback session with Angel Velasco Shaw, Rica Concepcion, Myra Beltran, and Abbie SJ Lara on June 26 (Thursday), 2:00 pm at the Ben Chan ArtSuite, 2F Ateneo Art Gallery, Soledad V Pangilinan Arts Wing, Areté, Ateneo de Manila University.

The film screening and talkback are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Register now at https://go.ateneo.net/GSBEFilmsJune2025

This public program is organized in line with the exhibition “Gongs. Smoke. Blood. Earth.” which is currently on view until 3 August 2025 at the 3F Ateneo Art Gallery, Soledad V Pangilinan Arts Wing, Areté. To learn more about the exhibition, visit https://ateneoartgallery.com/exhibitions/gongs-smoke-blood-earth.

For inquiries, email aag@ateneo.edu.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Angel Velasco Shaw is a media artist, educator, curator, and cultural organizer currently living in Manila. Her films, which have been screened in film festivals, museums, galleries, and schools across different countries, explore themes of memory, identity, and postcolonial histories. She has curated and produced several visual art and film exhibitions, and cross-cultural exchange projects such as The Inverted Telescope, Markets of Resistance, Women as (Mythical) Hero, Vestiges of War, and co-curated Empire and Memory: Repercussions and Evocations of the 1899 Philippine-American War, to name a few. In 2011, she was a recipient of a 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the U.S “Innovators & Thought Leaders” award by Filipina Women’s Network in 2011.

Myra Beltran is a Filipina contemporary dancer, choreographer, and curator known for shaping the independent dance community in the Philippines. She first trained in classical ballet and pursued a dancing career in the United States, Germany, and Yugoslavia before returning to the Philippines where she performed with Ballet Philippines and The Lab-Projekt-Philippines. She founded Dance Forum in 1997 that led to a flourishing independent contemporary dance community in the Philippines. She received multiple awards including the 2001 Alab ng Haraya and the Tanging Parangal award while her Dance Forum received the ALIW Award in 2001. She holds a master’s degree in comparative literature from the University of the Philippines and currently co-curates the Cultural Center of the Philippines Choreographers Series.

Rica Concepcion, together with her husband Egay Navarro, are documentary filmmakers known for chronicling the lives of artists and figures such as Santiago Bose, Robert Villanueva, and José Maceda, as well as significant events in the art community like the Baguio Arts Guild festivals. Navarro and Concepcion are an integral part of the art community and are likely to have one of the largest alternative archives in the country. Embraced by an eclectic network of friends, they have captured the lives and contributions of the people that have surrounded them, whether it is through film, video, or other digital platforms.

Abbie San Juan Lara is a director, video editor, and illustrator. Her illustrations manifest a similar philosophy with her editing: a constant framing of objects and figures. But they also simplify gestures or objects in frame into fluid lines, a pause from narratives. Her body of work includes editing and directing television documentary film series such as GMA Network's I-Witness. She also facilitates film workshops, including the Film Development Council's Make the Cut! Film Editing Workshop held in Baguio City in 2016.