Joni Gutierrez’ educational web series on film aesthetics, production, theory, and research
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Simmering Cinema
My personal tribute to the Cedar River Trail (Washington State, USA), which has helped me stay sane and grounded during the pandemic — shot using iPhone 8.
9 min, 47 s || experimental film / installation art piece
Somewhere in the North American Pacific Northwest region, the late afternoon sun casts its shadows on a banig, a handwoven mat from the Philippines. This short film renders that moment, together with live sound recorded along the nearby Cedar River.
Cinematographer (Director of Photography): Joni Gutierrez
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The Spirit of Things: Seattle
Joni Gutierrez, 2018. A set of fifteen black-and-white photographs shot in Seattle. Featured at the 12th Annual Burien Art Market in Washington State, USA, in November 2019.
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Trip to Caramoan (2007)
Came across this short film that I shot on miniDV 13 years ago
Wildfire smoke has reached home. Shot in Renton, WA, USA
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Backyard Symphony
Nine black-and-white photographs shot from a backyard in Renton, Washington, USA. Online photography exhibition by Joni Gutierrez, 2018.
The documentary has always been an engaging genre and artistic practice for me. In this post, I present definitions, characteristics, and seminal examples of poetic, avant-garde, and experimental documentary films as well as my own cinematic works to illustrate the discussion.
Born and raised in Manila, I moved to Hong Kong in 2013 to pursue my PhD studies in Communication and Film. I earned the degree in 2018 and even though I have since then immigrated here in the USA, I still consider Hong Kong home. In this post, I share five short films that I shot in Hong Kong. These works remind me of my personal journey while I was living there as a postgraduate student and why this beautifully complex city will always have a special place in my heart.
by Jose Gutierrez III
Five characteristics of the phenomenalist-realist film were identified by Ian Aitken in The Major Realist Film Theorists: A Critical Anthology (2016) : (1) perceptually realistic; (2) disinterested; (3) nature-like; (4) feeling-oriented; and (5) flowing. In the current essay, I flesh out each of these attributes by expounding on their philosophical influences – particularly Kantian aesthetics – and explicating them through selected works from world cinema.
by Jose Gutierrez III
Seven tropes from the realist film theory of Siegfried Kracauer are presented in this essay. Selected works from world cinema re used to illustrate the discussion.
by Jose Gutierrez III
This essay describes the realist film theory of Siegfried Kracauer and employs two notions of cinematic realism – the refuse and the transient – in discussing Lino Brocka’s Weighed but Found Wanting (1974), Three Two One (1974), Manila in the Claws of Light (1975), Insiang (1976), Bona (1980), Clutching a Knife (1985), and I Carry the World (1987).
by Jose Gutierrez III
The mothers in the films of Lino Brocka – a veritable auteur who used film as his medium in expressing his insights through his works from 1970 to 1991 – gravitate towards two clusters of images: 1) the mothers who struggle within the confines of their role; and 2) the mothers who question their role and affirm themselves as persons.