NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

My latest film collaboration "The Speakers" with Kenneth Gofigan Kuper and Edgar Flores  will be screened twice at  # GIFF  this year. Biba GIFF 2018!  It is the perfect film for those looking for a never-ending parade of silly and stupid jokes in the Chamoru language, with a profound message about language revitalization somehow mixed in.  Like our previous films, it was created by Ken and I, with ourselves as the actors, but the true star of the short film is meant to be I Fino' Chamoru!  It will be featured as part of the Made in Marianas Showcase A and can be watched on October 6th at 2:45 pm and October 21st at 1 pm at the Guam Museum. Si Yu'os Ma'åse to the team at  # GIFF  for once again giving our Chamoru language revitalization efforts a platform!

I will be in Spain this week for the conference " PRIMUS CIRCUMDEDISTI ME: Claves de la primera globalizacion ." It is a historical congress being organized primarily by the Spanish Ministry of Defense that will discuss the 500th anniversary of the first circumnavigation of the world by Ferdinand Magellan. I am attending the conference as the representative from Guam, where Magellan visited in March of 1521. I will be writing about my trip and the congress under the title "Circumnavigations." Not only because of the trip of Magellan itself, but also because of the ways in which Guam and myself are navigating as well, working our way around history and around the global filled with independent nations. Here is the description of the conference from its website.  ************************** Introduction The Spanish Ministry of Defence –in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, and with the Junta de Castil

Chamorro Studies @ UOG Proudly presents a special screening of: "WAR FOR GUAM" Directed by Frances Negron-Muntaner A 57-minute documentary that chronicles the Chamorro story during and after World War II. A panel will take place after the film and a Q and A with the audience.  CLASS Lecture Hall UOG 6 - 7:30 pm Light Refreshments will be Provided Please contact Professor Michael Lujan Bevacqua for more information at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com http://www.warforguam.com

For me the idea that Guam is a colonized place is so obvious that I often times have to atan puyitos anyone who is confused by this comment. There is so much evidence around us and even inside of us at any given moment, that it doesn't seem possible that someone could try to argue otherwise. You could try to argue that it being colonized isn't that bad and that it is actually good since Guam is helpless and pathetic without someone else telling it how to live its life, but this is different than simply denying that colonialism exists. This position is one of apologizing or justifying colonization in the name of helping a poor, tiny island that can't survive otherwise. Those who act like Guam isn't or can't be colonized usually don't know much about Guam and the fact that they take this position is usually exhibit A in their class action lawsuit of ignorance. But what is hysterical is the way they don't admit to this lack of knowledge and try to pretend tha

Body Matters   Keira Knightley's latest photoshoot is a protest against all the Photoshopping she's ever received   Kit Steinkellner November 4, 2014   When you think of a protest, you tend to think of picket signs, sit-ins, rhyming chants,and so on and so forth. What you usually DON’T think of is a topless celebrity photo shoot. However, that’s exactly what actress Keira Knightley had done with her recent photo shoot for Interview —she turned her shoot into a protest. She posed topless for the magazine on the condition that Interview would not enlarge her breasts in post-production, something that apparently happens to Knightley’s photographs constantly. Case in point, check out the (virtual) boob job Knightley received when she was featured as Guinevere on the poster of her 2004  film King Arthur. That is a cup size difference for sure. If I were Keira Knightley I’d be weirded out by my body always looking like someone else’s body every time I

“The Talented Island of Guam” by Michael Lujan Bevacqua July 31, 2014 The Marianas Variety If you didn’t get a chance to watch “Talent Town,” the latest film from the filmmaking duo The Muña Brothers this past month, you really missed out. The film was an engaging and exciting take on the state of art and creativity in Guam today and a call for both artists and their audience here to take things to the next level in terms of representing Guam. Full disclosure, I am one of the people featured in the film and so I do have some positive bias towards it. The Muña Brothers are known for their work on “Shiro’s Head,” which is considered to be the first Chamorro/ Guam-movie. Other movies were filmed on Guam before “Shiro’s Head,” but this was the first one that took the island’s identity, especially its Chamorro heritage seriously. Whereas other films such as “Noon Sunday” and “Kaiju-ta no Kessen Gojira no Musuko” just used Guam as just a backdrop and bas

Dinana' Minagof, the annual Chamorro dance competition sponsored by Pa'a Taotao Tano' is happening this weekend. On July 5 and 6th at the UOG Field House you will see different houses or guma' within the Pa'a' Taotao Tano' family competing through dances from ancient, Spanish and contemporary periods. I've been to many Dinana' Minagof competitions over the years, but I am most excited this time around because I will be a judge for the competition! I have always sat in the audience or sat at a table selling my grandfather's tools. This time I will be judging the performances of so many students and fafan'ague that I know. Pa'a Taotao Tano' does such amazing work in the community, especially in terms of building Chamorro identity and a sense of cultural continuity. For years people criticized Frank Rabon and his groups for "making things up." This criticism makes no sense when you think about it, but as culture is one of t

Guam Humanities Council to host Smithsonian Institution Exhibit Journey Stories, Opening June 26, 2014 The Guam Humanities Council is partnering with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program to bring to Guam the national exhibit, Journey Stories. Many of us have powerful journey stories in our personal heritage. It may be a story of a family uprooting itself in order to stay together, or of sons and daughters moving to another land, or of a distant ancestor. As part of the Guam tour, the Council has developed a local companion exhibit with complimentary programs entitled, Sindålu – Chamorro Journeys in the U.S. Military, to explore the many significant and oftentimes unrecognized journeys of Chamorro men and women who currently serve or have served in the U.S. Military. Chamorro servicemen and women, along with their families, have moved all over the world, some returning home, others resettling perman

“Shakespeare gi Guinaiya yan Chinatli’e’” Michael Lujan Bevacqua Marianas Variety 4/30/14 Shakespeare’s Hamlet asks, “ Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them?”   Hamlet is paralyzed by the fear of death or suffering, but ultimately moves toward decisive political rebellion.    Similarly, the African-American lesbian poet, scholar, and activist Audre Lorde speaks of the radicalizing crisis in her life when she faced a diagnosis of breast cancer: “I was going to die, if not sooner then later, whether or not I had ever spoken myself.   My silences had not protected me.   Your silence will not protect you.”   Most might assume that it is ridiculous to compare a “great” writer such as Shakespeare to an activist like Lorde. One of them so many seem to accept as the height of human achievement whereas the other is gener

The movie Battleship is critically reviled and if I were a critic of film I would definitely join the party in hating it. It is a children's game that was blown up Jerry Bruckheimer style into a massive, special-effects laden, clunky, chunky and funky action flick. It lacks any delicate touches or even nuances, unless of course you count slow motion shots of epic faced characters with over-saturated color as a nuance. The story itself should be familiar. Aliens attack the world and they are fought off. One unique aspect of the film is that it takes place in Hawai'i, usually known as a setting for fantasy-paradise jaunts of the Western, American-centered world. Or Hawai'i as a locale is often invisibly inserted into films provided the scenery for ancient jungles, humid alien worlds or lost islands. Many of these films attempt to hide the contemporary nature of Hawai'i and instead film, edit and crop the place into becoming something majestically camera ready for wast

The Battle of Guam/Okinawa project took several months but it was well worth it. After visiting the Sakima Art Museum in Okinawa I was consumed by a painting that is in their permanent collection, "The Battle of Okinawa." This painting was designed to show the horror of World War II in Okinawa, when the island was destroyed in a typhoon of steel. This painting was the height of the Museum and filled with imagery that intrigued, haunted and horrified. I knew I could never match up to the intensity of that image, but felt the need to try to create my own intervention. After traveling and visiting Okinawa so many times in the past few years and seeing the way our tragic histories have given us similar difficult experiences, I wanted to build upon the intent of the original Battle of Okinawa painting, but also put my own wishful solidarity, in whatever form I could find it. I decided to try to paint an image that could combine the effects and impacts of World War II in both

Don't forget that this Sunday at the Fishermen's Coop there will be the Gupot Fanha'aniyan Pulan Chamorro or Chamorro Lunar Calendar Festival. There will be arts, crafts and food. Here's an interview with John Calvo who helps organize it each year.

Guam is truly fortunate to have its own international film festival. It is even more fortunate that it has been able to enjoy this festival for three years in a row now. But it is the most fortunate of all, and I don’t think we realize it enough, that we have people here who are willing to take on the task of organizing the festival and making it a reality for the community. The 3 rd Guam International Film Festival, titled “Beyond the See” took place last week. All in all, the festival offered over 45 films from across the world and took place over 6 nights at the Agana Shopping Center. The trailer for the film festival invoked the word “passion.” The more films I watched and the more I interacted with both audience members and filmmakers, the more I could feel this passion. Filmmaking, especially in this small-scale, grassroots form is a very delicate and personal art. For many filmmakers, it is something they want to do, hope they can do, but struggle to find ways to su

I'll be here tonight at University of Hawai'i, Manoa.

I wish I was in Jeju, South Korea this weekend. If I was I would be attending this conference.

I haven't had an art exhibit in about two years now, since my last solo show titled "Before the Storm, After the Fire" in May of 2010. In December 2011, I hung a small exhibit featuring artwork created by my brother Jack but conceived as part of a project I've been working on for quite a while, but only got a small amount of funding to work on last year. The project is titled "The Untold Story of the Chamurai: How Chamorro and Spanish Warriors Fought Against the Spanish in Guam in 1616." The exhibit in it's still unfinished glory is meant to tell the previously unknown tale of how Samurai and Chamorro warriors fought against the Spanish who were attempting to wipe out all of the Chamorros on Guam in 1616. I had first imagined this project more than 10 years ago as a way of combining my interest in samurai manga, anime and fiction with my interest in reading and teaching Chamorro history. I wrote up an entire story arc, filled with action, drama, romanc