To Pick a Flower

Synopsis

This film essay incorporates archival photographs from the American colonial era in the Philippines (1898–1946), exploring the sticky relationship between humans and nature and their entanglements with empire. Taking plants and trees as starting points, it reflects on the intertwined roots of photography and capitalism in the Philippines.

Bio/Filmo

Shireen Seno is an artist and filmmaker whose work addresses memory, history, and image making, often in relation to the idea of home. Her films have won awards at festivals in Rotterdam, Punto de Vista, Shanghai, Olhar de Cinema and Vladivostok, among others, and been screened at New Directors/New Films, Yebisu International Festival of Art & Alternative Visions, Tate Modern, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Portikus, NTU Center for Contemporary Art Singapore, Taipei National Center for Photography and Images and the Museum of the Moving Image, among others. She is a 2022 Film Fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin programme.