Kay Cuajunco

b. 1986

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Kay Cuajunco is a queer pinay activist, educator, and filmmaker. She was born in Guam and is currently based in Oakland, CA. As a granddaughter of Filipino farmers, she reclaims her connection to land through her work organizing for food justice, and she finds healing and creative inspiration cooking for cultural survival. Her first film Roots of Struggle, an anti-imperialist love story revealing the intimate violence of the military-industrial-complex on queer youth, premiered at the Queer Women of Color Film Festival in San Francisco, screened at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit and the Assata Will Rise showcase at the Eastside Arts Alliance, and was awarded best short at the Oakland Pride Film Festival in 2013. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Arts from San Francisco State University where she wrote her thesis on critical pedagogy and farmworker solidarity movements, focusing on the ideas on Paulo Freire and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Bibingka is a short film that explores how recipes tell stories of migration and cultural survival through the lens of Filipino foods. Behind every recipe there are countless memories of celebration, ritual, and comfort that allow us to reclaim our connection to the land, family, and home. Bibingka is one of the first Filipino desserts I learned how to cook with my mom and the smell of which always reminds me of home. Throughout the silent journey of making this dessert from looking through the aisles for ingredients to putting it into the oven, you can hear stories about Filipino food to narrate the feelings and memories of love, care, absence, and frustration that come up while cooking. Featuring voices from the Filipino diaspora, Bibingka awakens our senses to the urgency to keep the legacy of our traditional foods alive.

Bibingka

Kay Cuajunco

2014 Video 10m 30s Courtesy of the artist.

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Kay Cuajunco

b. 1986
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Kay Cuajunco is a queer pinay activist, educator, and filmmaker. She was born in Guam and is currently based in Oakland, CA. As a granddaughter of Filipino farmers, she reclaims her connection to land through her work organizing for food justice, and she finds healing and creative inspiration cooking for cultural survival. Her first film Roots of Struggle, an anti-imperialist love story revealing the intimate violence of the military-industrial-complex on queer youth, premiered at the Queer Women of Color Film Festival in San Francisco, screened at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit and the Assata Will Rise showcase at the Eastside Arts Alliance, and was awarded best short at the Oakland Pride Film Festival in 2013. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Arts from San Francisco State University where she wrote her thesis on critical pedagogy and farmworker solidarity movements, focusing on the ideas on Paulo Freire and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Bibingka is a short film that explores how recipes tell stories of migration and cultural survival through the lens of Filipino foods. Behind every recipe there are countless memories of celebration, ritual, and comfort that allow us to reclaim our connection to the land, family, and home. Bibingka is one of the first Filipino desserts I learned how to cook with my mom and the smell of which always reminds me of home. Throughout the silent journey of making this dessert from looking through the aisles for ingredients to putting it into the oven, you can hear stories about Filipino food to narrate the feelings and memories of love, care, absence, and frustration that come up while cooking. Featuring voices from the Filipino diaspora, Bibingka awakens our senses to the urgency to keep the legacy of our traditional foods alive.

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  • Born: Agana, Guam
  • Based: Oakland, CA, USA

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