Wake (Subic)

Gianvito travelled in 2006 to the Philippines for the first time to undertake initial research for a narrative feature. Soon after he arrived, however, he started on the documentary essay project For Example, The Philippines that is now ready ten years later with the completion of Wake (Subic) (the first part was Vapor Trail (Clark), IFFR, 2010).
The background to this gripping mix of cinéma vérité, landscape photography and interviews larded with historic texts and resistance songs is the horrific environmental pollution and its consequences for the inhabitants around Subic, the enormous former base of the American fleet. As an antidote to historic amnesia, Gianvito follows the trail back to the forgotten horrors of the Philippine-American war (1899-1913), the start of the Yankees' military presence, which ended in 1991 when the Philippine Senate decided to close the bases.