Maria Maea

"ASCO: Without Permission" is a genre-defying film that profiles the extraordinary, Los Angeles based, Chicano art group of the 70's-80's, ASCO, who merged activism and art as they challenged representation in the art world, Hollywood and the news media. Unrecognized in their time, they are now being considered amongst the most important artists of the 20th century. Utilizing a wholly original approach to filmmaking where nonfiction and fiction are interconnected through collaborative film works made with the next generation of Latinx artists, "Without Permission" reimagines what is possible today in cinema and art while celebrating an iconoclastic group that was far ahead of its time.

Bakunawa rose from the ocean, so mesmerized by the light of the seven moons that she devoured them all. Dismayed, the people emerged, making noise and begging Bakunawa to give them back the moonlight. Bakunawa agreed and returned the seventh moon back into the sky, thus creating the first lunar eclipse. Part sonic ritual, part diasporic storytelling, "BAKUNAWA: Opera of the Seven Moons" is an experimental opera-film based on Micaela Tobin's critically-acclaimed album of the same name that reclaims the pre-colonial mythology of the Philippines back from centuries of violent, colonial erasure.