A film by: Nix Guirre
Choreography by: Kim Requesto
Cinematography by: Jeremiah Ysip & Jericho Deguzman
Music by: Rachel Lastimosa
One of the most contentious conversations that most migrants grapple with is how one can gain a sense of equilibrium and orientation when redefining what “home” means to them. Because of the vast variety of stories, recollections, and reasons for having to leave “home” and/or look for a new “home,” the conversation is daunting at best, traumatic at worst. Regardless of success in a foreign place, most -if not all- migrants find that in order to thrive and survive in a new place, they must accept the possibility of living with wounds that might never truly heal over. Leaving “home” is almost always an arduous and emotional task.
In “Day & Night,” filmmaker Nix Guirre explores the notion of movement and longing as she confronts a sense of loss that only a migrant who’s crossed a vast ocean can truly understand. How does one maintain a connection to who they used to be? How does one stay connected to a culture they’ve left behind? For Nix, dance was a way to come to terms with the sense of loss that she’s wrestled with since arriving in the U.S. from the Philippines.
Nix explained, “I’ve danced since I was a little girl. For school, in front of my family and community. It made me happy. At the time, I didn’t know how important it’d become for me; I was just doing it because it was something to do. I grew up thinking about what life would be like here in the U.S., just like everyone else. It was kind of like a goal to come here. And now that I’ve been living here, it’s not at all what I imagined. It’s difficult to explain it to people back home; they don’t understand. Even after all these years that I’ve lived here, I feel homesick. And dancing is one of the ways that I thought that I could stay connected to back home.”
Nix worked with choreographer Kim Requesto to develop a dance offering, paired with a cover of “Araw Gabi,” a composition originally written by Ryan Cayabyab but made famous in the Philippines by pop star Regine Velasquez. The song, a ballad about the nostalgic longing of a love lost, speaks perfectly to a time before one knew that they even had something to lose. And as such, Nix pays tribute to her journey in finding home again.
Nix (she/they) is a documentary filmmaker and cultural worker based in the Bay Area. She emigrated from the Philippines to the United States at age 18 and later received her BA in Film and TV Production at the University of Southern California. Then, the result of the 2016 presidential elections inspired her to work as a documentarian and labor organizer for Unite Here Local 2, where she contributed to winning a 61-day strike against the Marriott Corporation. Now she is an independent documentarian working primarily with grassroots organizations in the Bay Area. She also recently joined as the Program and Communications coordinator for SOMA Pilipinas, San Francisco's Filipino Heritage Cultural District.
