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| (Image Source: GMA Network) |
I-Witness documentarists Howie Severino and Atom Araullo are sharing a selection of what they’ve seen in many years of coverage in a series of photo exhibits entitled "Unmasked" across various SM malls nationwide. The exhibits, which kicked off last August 21, 2023 at SM City Santa Rosa in Laguna, are being produced in partnership between GMA Network's premier award-winning documentary series I-Witness and SM Malls.
"Unmasked" will mainly feature photos shot while Atom and Howie were producing I-Witness stories as varied as a non-violent way to conduct the drug war and the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. They’ve journeyed to numerous far-flung places, including an island that lost all its land, and documented desperate people whose stories ached to be told. In one episode, the documentarist became the story as Howie was among the country’s first COVID-19 survivors. His documentary, “Ako si Patient 2828", was one of the most watched Philippine documentaries on YouTube in recent memory and won Best Documentary in the Gawad Tanglaw Awards in 2020. Just before he got sick, Severino was an evacuee from the Taal Volcano eruption of 2020. He lives on the shores of Taal Lake. That experience is also featured in the exhibit. “Unmasked” remembers a world just before the pandemic shut it down and celebrates a return to interactions where faces are visible once again.
Atom will be sharing photographs taken during his travels and documentary-making in the Philippines and abroad. Some of these include his trip to Bangladesh for his first documentary for I-Witness, “Silang Kinalimutan" which showed the story of Rohingya refugees who fled to neighboring Bangladesh after the Myanmar government denied them citizenship. It eventually won a Gold Medal in the 2018 U.S. International Film & Video Festival for Documentary: Social Issues category. “This exhibit is a chance for us to share our work in the real world, away from screens, and interact with real people and not just names online,” says Howie who have graced the opening of the exhibits' first leg with Atom. “I’ve always been fascinated by the power of still images in telling a story. By bringing our photographs to a larger audience through this exhibit, we can keep the discussion going, and perhaps inspire other storytellers out there,” shares Atom.
Aside from doing documentaries for I-Witness, Atom co-anchors GTV’s flagship newscast State of the Nation with Maki Pulido. He is also regularly seen as a guest anchor for GMA’s 24 Oras. He headlines the bi-monthly documentary series The Atom Araullo Specials. Philippine Seas, his first documentary as a returning Kapuso, took home a Gold Medal at the 2018 U.S. International Film & Video Festival and won at the AIBs in London. This was followed by numerous accolades for his various work as a news anchor and journalist including the Bronze medal at the 2022 New York Festivals TV & Film Award for his I-Witness documentary “Koronang Tinik (Crown of Thorns)". Atom is the first recipient of the Outstanding Media Personality Award at the 2023 Lasallian Scholarum Awards of De La Salle University (DLSU). He also took home the First Prize in the Essay Writing competition at the 70th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for his "Letter from Tawi-Tawi". In addition to his documentary work, Howie is editor-at-large for GMA News Online and hosts the podcast “The Howie Severino Podcast". In 2014, he mounted his first photo exhibit, “Stare: Through the Lens of Howie Severino", which was also held at SM malls.
The first leg of "Unmasked" photo exhibit series at SM City Santa Rosa runs until August 30, 2023. Slated to run until May 26, 2024, the public can also catch the exhibit at SM City San Pablo, SM City Calamba, SM City Tanza, SM City Molino, SM City Trece Martires, SM City Dasmariñas, SM City Batangas, SM City Lipa, SM City Lucena, SM City Daet, SM City Naga, SM City Legazpi, and SM City Sorsogon. Stay trubed and updated on the official social media accounts of I-Witness and SM Supermalls for the complete schedule of the exhibit series.
