Jon Lazam

Jon Lazam is an experimental filmmaker from the Philippines. He also teaches theatre and film at a university north of Manila. In 2011, he was awarded the Silvershorts Prize at the .MOV International Film, Music and Literature Festival for his silent travelogue, Hindi Sa Atin Ang Buwan (The Moon Is Not Ours). The following year, Nang Gabing Maging Singlaki ng Puso ang Bato ni Darna (Darna: A Stone Is A Heart You Cannot Swallow), premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, screened at the Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival (Chicago), and in competition at WNDX Festival of Moving Image (Winnipeg), Videomedeja (Novi Sad), and the Paris Festival of Different and Experimental Cinemas. Colonial, on the other hand, is a video created for a performance by Alvin Erasga-Tolentino, a Filipino dancer based in Canada. It had its world premiere in Vancouver in November 2012 and was also presented in Montreal and Manila. Pantomina sa mga Anyong Ikinubling Alon (Pantomime For Figures Shrouded By Waves) followed in 2013. Commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation, it premiered at the Sharjah Biennial and screened in competition at the Curta Cinema (Rio de Janeiro), Bogoshorts (Bogota) and the Cinemanila International Film Festival where it was awarded Best Short Film. Two of his older works toured locally and abroad in the interim as part of The Kalampag Tracking Agency, a selection of shorts from 30 years of experimental cinema in the Philippines. The program, curated by Shireen Seno and Merv Espina, screened in New York, Singapore, Tokyo, Melbourne, Bangalore, Jakarta, Ljubljana, Toronto and London. His latest work, Tatlong Engkanto (Three Enchantments), screened in competition at EXiS Experimental Film Festival (Seoul) and at short film festivals in Winterthur and Oberhausen.