Research Creation Workshop with John Torres and Shireen Seno

A research-creation workshop hosted by visiting filmmakers Shireen Seno and John Torres, which will focus on presenting a creative project to different bodies and learning how a project can be translated into academic, cinema, fine art, and other spaces. Using excerpts from their own work as case studies, Shireen and John will show how they have moved between various arenas, from the classroom (University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila) to film festivals (Berlinale Forum Expanded, QCinema, Bangkok Experimental Film Festival), museums (UP Vargas Museum, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Esplanade Tunnel, National Center of Photography and Images Taipei, Tate Modern), and galleries (d/p gallery, Jane Lombard Gallery). In addition, interested students will be able to show excerpts (of up to 10 minutes) from their own work for discussion and feedback.

Please note that sending in an excerpt is not a requirement for participation. There are 15 spots for students in total. However, because of time constraints, only 5 out of the 15 students will be able send in an excerpt of their work for feedback and discussion. If you are interested in showing an excerpt (up to 10 minutes long), please let us know when you RSVP to lawrence.garcia@mail.utoronto.ca. If not, we still hope to see you there! Refreshments will be provided so please also let us know if you have any dietary preferences/restrictions.

Shireen Seno is an artist and filmmaker whose work addresses memory, history, and image-making, often in relation to the idea of home. A recipient of the 2018 Thirteen Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, she is known for her films which have won awards at Rotterdam, Punto de Vista, Shanghai, Olhar de Cinema, Vladivostok, Jogja-Netpac, and Lima Independiente and have screened at numerous international festivals and art institutions. Seno was a 2022 Film Fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin program and 2023 Visiting Professor for ArteVisione at c/o in Milan. Her first solo exhibition in Europe, "A child dies, a child plays, a woman is born, a woman dies, a bird arrives, a bird flies off," at daadgalerie in Berlin in 2023, travelled to Esplanade - Theatres By the Bay in Singapore in 2024. Her work is in the collections of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive.

John Torres is an independent filmmaker, musician and writer, known for his highly personal and poetic style. He co-runs Los Otros, a Manila-based space, film lab, and platform committed to the intersections of film and art, with a focus on process over product. His work fictionalizes and reworks personal and found documentations of love, family relations, and memory in relation to current events, hearsays, myth, and folklore. Weaving together archival clips, found footage, and visually powerful imagery, his films unfold narrative structures, often with strong autobiographical references, that defy conventional tropes and genres.