THE BOOK OF PARADISE HAS NO AUTHOR

live cinema performance.

55 minutes. premiered Other Cinema, San Francisco 2010

In the summer of 1971 Ferdinand Marcos announced the discovery of a tribe of primitive cave dwellers who had lived in complete isolation for thousands of years in the rainforest of Mindanao, the easternmost island of the Philippines. Modernity as we knew it was uprooted. The Tasaday represented a chance to witness firsthand the origins of civilization, and investigate the very essence of humanity. They also--seemingly--offered Marcos a number of rather unique political opportunities. This experimental performance essay integrates rare ethnographic footage, vintage television broadcasts, recordings, and still photographs to look at the unexpectedly tragic, haunting, and provocative tale of our encounter with the Tasaday, and their equally elliptical encounter with us. The result is a meditative sensory experience that questions the nature of reality itself.

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