"Pangarap ng Arkibo: The Filmed Worlding of Nicholas Viernes (1902-1991)" with Ashley Dequilla and Nick Deocampo

The Ateneo Art Gallery presents Pangarap ng Arkibo: The Filmed Worlding of Nicholas Viernes (1902-1991) with Ashley Dequilla and Nick Deocampo on 15 January 2026 (Thursday), 3:30 pm at the Ben Chan ArtSuite, 2F Ateneo Art Gallery, Soledad V Pangilinan Arts Wing, Areté, Ateneo de Manila University.

This program is FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Register and confirm a slot at https://go.ateneo.net/PangarapNgArkibo

Nicholas Viernes migrated from Nueva Vizcaya to the US in 1926 and unknowingly became the earliest Filipino American documentarian in film history, creating over 300 home movies that lovingly recorded the memories of his family, community, travels, and events on 16mm. Today, these films are preserved by the Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago (FAHSC) and serve as a vital visual record of diasporic memory in the early 20th Century.  This lecture discusses the FAHSC de facto archivist’s journey to spearhead National Film Preservation Foundation awards in 2024 and 2025, advocating for autonomous community archiving in conversation with film historian Nick Deocampo.

This program was organized as part of Ateneo Art Gallery’s Moving Image Program, an ongoing series of film screenings and talkbacks from January to March 2026.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Ashley Dequilla is an artist-filmmaker and archivist of Negrense, Tagalog, and Ilonggo descent. She holds an MFA in Moving Image (‘23) and is completing her MA in Art History (‘25) from the School of Art and Art History at the University of Illinois Chicago. She is a Co-Curator Partner and researcher of the Philippine Heritage Collection at the Field Museum of Natural History. Ashley is the de facto archivist and collection manager for the Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago, securing the National Film Preservation Foundation award in 2024 and 2025 for 16mm home movies by Nicholas Galutera Viernes (1902-1991), the earliest surviving Filipino migrant documentary in American cinema history.

Nick Deocampo is a distinguished Filipino filmmaker, film historian, and film literacy advocate. For more than thirty years, he has created a vast array of acclaimed films and video documentaries capturing topics such as life under a military dictatorship, film history, and the environment. He has also written and edited several books on cinema history. In 1992 Deocampo was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines and in 1993 he was recognized in Japan as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World. His outstanding contributions to cinema earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Awards (FAMAS), as well as a Lamberto Avellana Award from the Film Academy of the Philippines.

For inquiries, email aag@ateneo.edu.