This behind-the-scenes conversation explores the digital production of Mountain Spirits: Rice and Indigeneity in the Northern Luzon Highlands, Philippines, an exhibition that immerses audiences in the sacred landscapes and living traditions of the Ifugao rice terraces. Featuring Amy Landau and Paul Connor, the online program examines the research, filming, and on-site processes that shaped the exhibition’s digital components. From early ideation to working in the mountainous terrain of the Philippines, they will reflect on their approach to documenting a living cultural landscape grounded in ritual, labor, and environmental stewardship.

Through images, clips, and personal reflections, exhibition co-curator Amy Landau and Paul Connor will discuss how digital media can translate embodied, place-based knowledge into an exhibition experience. The conversation will address the practical and ethical dimensions of filming, collaboration with local communities, and the challenges of capturing atmosphere and spirituality on screen. They will also share how raw footage and research were transformed into the final 9 projector, 7 speaker, and 4 screen video installation, offering insight into the creative decisions behind bringing Mountain Spirits to life in digital form.

Paul Connor is Director of Video Experience for Mountain Spirits and works with UCLA’s Division of Social Sciences on media production and research projects involving film and video. He has led the redesign of divisional websites, launched YouTube channels, and developed marketing campaigns for new academic programs. Connor also served as Digital Lab Director for the groundbreaking Center on the Everyday Lives of Families (CELF), which collected more than 1,600 hours of video data documenting the lives of 32 middle-income families in Los Angeles. With a background in film production, he has written and directed narrative films that have received audience awards and screened at Oscar-qualifying film festivals.

Amy Landau, co-curator of Mountain Spirits, is Director of Education and Interpretation at the Fowler Museum, where she oversees gallery interpretation, digital learning, and programming for K–12 audiences, university students, and the public. Previously, she served as Curator of Islamic and South & Southeast Asian Art (2009–2019) and Director of Curatorial Affairs (2016–2019) at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Her work there included organizing award-winning exhibitions, overseeing major gallery reinstallations of Asian art and the museum’s historic townhouse, and contributing to a landmark digitization project of one of North America’s most significant manuscript collections. In 2018, Landau co-founded Art, Religion and Cities at Morgan State University’s Center for Religion and Cities, an initiative dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary research and teaching at the intersection of urban life, art, and belief.

Photo courtesy of Paul Connor