Pulp Friction: Cult Cinema, Pinoy Style!

The UP Film Institute presents rare screenings of Australian filmmaker Andrew Leavold's documentaries The Search For Weng Weng (2013), which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, on his obsessive quest for the two-foot-nine James Bond of the Philippines, and The Last Pinoy Action King (2015), a dissection of politics and celebrity via the cult of late action star Rudy Fernandez.

Leavold, who is also an author, film historian, and expert on Filipino cult, pulp, and B-grade cinema, will give a lecture on genre, bomba, and bold cinema during Martial Law under the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. A regular visitor to the Philippines and UP since 2006, he will also talk about his extensive field research, the challenges in framing the conversation around the more problematic areas of cinema history, and his upcoming projects including Filipino diaspora cinema in Hawaii and mainland USA.

This presentation is programmed by film scholar Patrick F. Campos and kicks off PELIKULA INTERACTIONS, the series of talks and events organized by PELIKULA: A Journal of Philippine Cinema and Moving Image.