The Model Family Award

Overview

The Philippines is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of labour. One in eight Filipinos are overseas workers. Every year, awards are handed out among them to ‘recognise the most outstanding Filipino workers and their families for their exceptional achievements’. In the video The Model Family Award, Lizza May David captures the award ceremony to create awareness about this socio-political situation, as this commodification and exportation of human labour disrupts families. Besides criticising the contest and its organiser, the artist is also interested in exploring the often ambiguously suggestive power of the visual image and the media. Where is the line between reality and imagination? Between documentation and fiction?