Broadly Entertaining’s Woman of the Week: Zarah Cabañas
Trees over film school, babies over pandemics, and how not to follow your teen idol into a basement bathroom.

Video artist vj Lady Firefly gets deep into it with Broadly Entertaining’s Giana DeGeiso
Sep 22, 2021
(interview edited for print)

Giana: Hello everybody. Hello. Hello! Welcome to the Woman of the Week Post with Broadly Entertaining. I'm Giana if you don't know who I am and I am so excited to introduce you to our Woman of the Week this week. And that is Zarah! Zarah, you are a really positive and beautiful and soft energy to me and I love being around you and you bring a smile to my face. And I'm just really happy to have you here. I know that you have so many hats and so many talents and so many things and…I'm excited to talk about all of them or as many as we can today. So thank you for being here.

Zarah: Thank you for having me! Thank you so much.

Giana: Well let's just dive in because there's so many fun things to talk about, but I wanna just ask you a really quick question about why your husband calls you Seventies?

Zarah: So when we met, one of our first dates was at a graveyard, of course naturally…. and we found gravestones that we fell in love with. But in this graveyard walk and talk…I was so adamant about how the world just needed to pick itself up and just get with it. Live this one chance [and] stop just going along and doing the thing…. and I was just like, this place needs to turn into the 70s. Of course, fast forward years later, this is the 70s Plus <laughing>. So Matt Werden has always called me Seventies since that graveyard time….

Giana: Aww, that's really sweet. I love that…. I know in graveyards there are a lot of trees about too, just FYI, <laughing> I dunno if you've noticed, but I know that you have a really deep connection to the trees…. So let's talk a little bit about how trees are your guiding force and what they do for you.

Zarah: Well, I mean, think trees are amazing and they are definitely the backbone not just for myself, but I know [for] a lot of people. We live out in the Catskills. Years ago, we made the decision to move out to the forest. It was always calling us and every time we would drive up Route 17, my heart would open up and we always wanted to plant roots here. So being with the trees is, it's kind of the anchor, ever since I was a kid…. I was born in the Philippines so palm trees were really calling me….

And of course we moved…[and] I grew up in suburbs of DC. You see your oaks, you see your pines and you kind of start getting comfortable with that terrain. But as a video artist, I think some of the first things that I had always wanted to photograph or be inspired by were the trees and the way they moved and the way they would just collage on each other and the way they would sound in the wind. And I don't know, I could shoot that for hours.

Giana: And how they change over time and I, I'm with you girl, I'm so sorry. I don't mean to interrupt.

Zarah: No, not at all. I mean, you know what mean. They have a much longer timeline than we do. And so they're absolutely, they're our mother trees. They're comforting to us. They take care of us. They watch out for us with their roots. They pass on information through their roots. They send out information through the fungus. They're really connecting us whether we know it or not. And I didn't really realize that so much as a kid, but that was really kind of the impetus for how I got into all of this video art as a video artist.

Years later I also started getting interested in arnis, which is a Filipino martial art. It's called arnis, eskrima. And here you can call it stick fighting. And it's basically a martial art form based based on two sticks or one stick. And you're using sticks to, in the oldie days, protect your jungle village. It's a very close contact form of protection. And strangely enough, that resonated with me too as a video artist and then now as a warrior, a protector, of things that are near and dear to me. And the further along I got into that practice, the more I realized even without the stick, the tree teaches you.

And just jumping right into the pandemic obviously moving from the city into the Catskills was kind of a no-brainer for us. And just breathing the air…you knew right away that the trees were taking care of you…protecting you. And that also got me into learning about the healing power of trees and plants and moving away from all the electronics and learning from the tree in terms of medicine. And so that's how I got my botanicals company started, Space Acres Botanicals. And so trees are just there, Giana, they're just there.

Giana: They're in all of the, they're literally just in every single piece of your life, they're in all of it. They tie it all together. I love that. That's beautiful. And what a wonderful way to start this because I don't know, it gives us context for everything we're about to talk to about. So that's wonderful. We set a bit of a thank you trees intention at the beginning of this conversation.

Zarah: Yes, we did.

Giana: Which seems fitting and I love that. I remember as a kid I would climb this apple tree that was in our backyard to do my homework. I have really visceral memories of how it felt the bark digging into my leg. But it was just the most comfortable place. It was a place that I was able to finally focus a little bit because, and I do this now, I need background, I need stimulation outside of the thing I'm focusing on in order to focus on the thing anyway. And I remember that.

Zarah: Yeah, cause it's a grounding force for you. So it's something in the back that kind of holds you while you get to focus.

Giana: And the sound of the leaves is almost white noise in a way. And there's just all of it. It just giving me this stimulation. I don't know, it was it. I remember it being really, really great for me. I loved it. And having my favorite tree was always the weeping willow. I just like the thought of sitting under those trees and having romance, having reading time, having whatever it was, It always just was such a thing for me. So I love that we started this conversation this way. I love trees too and that's great . So in terms of trees inspiring you to photograph and to make videos of Let's talk a bit about your VJ history, VJ Firefly, and also come on, more forest goodness right there.

Zarah: Oh man, I hope I'm not painting myself as some forest nymph or something like that. I'm squarely a nut.

Giana: Well, listen, it's in you and it's beautiful, but you're versatile. There are trees in the city too, girl, right?

Zarah: <laughing> That's right. Yeah. So VJ Lady Firefly. So I'll tell you the deal about VJ Lady Firefly. So as a kid I was…video taping trees, layering them. I also was a big fan of Deee-Lite, Lady Kier, [and] as a 17 year old girl, she just blew my mind. Dewdrops in the Garden was an amazing album that just changed me and still changes me. I would use those tracks for everything I made. So when it came to—she showed me how to become this other thing, this other worldly being so hence VJ Lady Firefly…. I'm just copping her.

Giana: Respect. Respect.

Zarah: Mad respect. Yeah. I mean years later, , I saw her on the Village Voice. There was a little ad and it was like, Lady Kier is DJing the basement of blah blah blah, and I was like, no kidding. So I went down there, I hounded her in between DJ sets cause she was literally going down to…the basement bathroom to pee. I was like, Hi, I really love you. And she was like, Great, I love you too. No, I had no context. I couldn't, wouldn't, had no words.

But anyway so the video art really --you know I went to film school but that wasn't really the jam. I mean NYU film school was amazing… but I didn't come into it wanting to be a video director like how a lot of people go into it. I really wanted to just make really weird stuff. And luckily enough I had a high school that taught me how to do that. And so the weird stuff really came out of a love for music first and foremost. I couldn't do anything until I had a track in my head or a song I really wanted to do. So that from there was born this kind of musical trippy visual style that I kind of embraced from an early age.

And that love has come into different permeations as the world of digital media and video expanded into other forms besides just traditional filmmaking or traditional video art that you would find in galleries and stuff. I personally thought that stuff was kind of dead because once you put something on a wall, a white wall on a screen…it just fell flat. So back in the early 2000s it was really amazing cuz the technology was starting to get there where you could actually use your video art in the live context. I was trained…to play alto saxophone and I took a lot of improvisational jazz lessons. So I put those kind of tools to work with my video and I found myself in nightclubs and basements of…dance parties creating improvised abstract visuals for party happening people in New York City. And that to me was so much more fun than anything I ever was exposed to in film school around festivals or things like that. I felt like I was able to connect more on that just visceral level with people.

Giana: I love that you followed that woman into the bathroom to connect with her. I just wanna skip back to that just for a second…because the whole point of this post and the whole point of what Jamie and I are trying to do with our business is to find ways to work with and to support other women. And I find that to be those moments where I've connected with other women doing the things that I love and seeing somebody as a role model and that I can shape after. And then also receiving their kindness and mentorship is a hundred percent why I am where I am and who I am. And I just find that to be really just a really touching story, even though it's silly. But I really love that. And has there ever been that ever happened in the reverse to you? Have, I know you teach a lot, so I'm sure that you've had students that you really love and you just like, but I don't know as far as female mentorship and ways that you can inspire other women.

Zarah: I would love to. No one has ever been like, Oh my god girl, you're the bomb!

Giana: I think, Girl, you're the bomb. I would love, I listen, I will walk through the forest with you and listen to everything that you have to say. Oh my. And I will learn everything.

Zarah: You know, likewise, we definitely have to do a forest walk. I mean that would be a serious hang.

Giana: Hell yeah. . I am so into that. So let's talk about—I know that women's rights issues and especially when it comes to health, are important to you.

Zarah: Absolutely.

Giana: So I wanna know about your women focused medicines and what we should, I don't know, you got any cool things we should know? You wanna share some wisdom with us?

Zarah: Well so yes, I would love to. This is a very specific one, but I think it's worth mentioning for women who are in the phase of their life who are choosing to have babies. I think the biggest thing that I would love to share is that you have options and that if you want to, that you have the right to birth in the way you want to birth. Whether that's in the hospital or if that's at home or if that's some kind of hybrid model you have a right and an instinct to follow when it comes to that and it's already there. For me personally, midwifery is an amazing model of care for women. Not just for women who are giving birth or anything, but just women health services. It's a holistic way of taking care of the whole woman which I think I didn't really get that message.

Giana: Yeah, totally.

Zarah: But there are so many awesome midwives out there who are there to help you with birth control, who are there to help you with ways to just get your system up and running in a way that is not dragging you to the clinic and making you sit there and feel like you're really uncomfortable. It's a woman centered model of care that if there's one word and one thing I would wanna share about it would be that: midwifery.

Giana: That's awesome. I know we share a mutual friend or acquaintance that is a midwife, Whitney Hall, and it astounds me how hard that woman works and what she does. And I am somebody who has struggled with finding a gynecologist that I love and I mean, I found one that I really loved. And then insurance is insurance and I lost her and I couldn't afford to keep her. And now that I've had that experience with that one gynecologist, now I'm constantly in the search for that connection and that thing again, because I was more aware of and concerned about my own health when I had a healthcare provider that I trusted and felt had my best interest in heart. Now all of a sudden I care more about myself too, which I'm one of those people that won't go to the doctor. I'm one of those people that will let a problem just fester and go. It's difficult for me to get myself to a doctor, but when you have one that you like and trust, that all changes. Yeah. So I hear you on that one….

And then while we're on activism and what fires you up and what makes you want to reach out and help, let's talk about AAPI issues. It has been a rough few months for a lot of people, but I know in particular, we've had, I don't even know how to start this conversation to be completely frank with you. I don't. And I accept with love and care and let me hear you and share what you have to say.

Zarah: Yeah, I mean even with AAPI, I mean in general at this point, I think it's a lot about visibility. We're in a strange paradigm where everything is so polarized. It's this or that or that people are really feeling like they're not being seen. And when it comes to just basic AAPI stuff, it's literally we've never been seen. Right? There's a lot of sensitivity about certain things, but Asian people…we code switch so hard because we've never been seen to the point where sometimes the diaspora is so spread out [that] Asian Americans kind of absorb other cultures or other personalities because those are the issues that are a little bit easier to tap into. And I think now it's a really wonderful opportunity to really start realizing that we've got our own thing going.

There's a lot of amazing people who are of AAPI descent…who are doing amazing things. And just to even start recognizing those people in that lens is really exciting to me. And it's something that hasn't happened. I mean, when I was a little kid, my mom would always say, "How come there's always this, every time we see something about the Philippines, it's always about the floods or all the poor people?" And she always would remind me that we have a rich history, really rich history of people and of food and of music.

Giana: Oh my god, Filipino food.

Zarah: We're like the original foodies. And we're also the original karaoke people.

Giana: Hell yeah.

Zarah: Yeah, food and karaoke. That's the jam.

Giana: Yes. The music is in you. . Yes. Oh my god. Filipino food. I love Filipino food so much. I missed living on the West coast. I feel like I had way better Filipino options out there also. I mean I would say food options in general to be honest with you.

Zarah: You mean [more] than in the mountains of the Catskills?

Giana: It's coming…it's coming. There's a lot of really great spots there happening and it's nice to finally, you're getting some really amazing options going and it can feel it burgling, You feel it? Burgling?

Zarah: Totally. I know, there's even a Filipino grocery store now. I'm gonna plug them. They don't even know me. It's in Woodstock, Harana Market. I've been trying to get there. They have all the food that I want and I don't have time to cook.

Giana: Yeah. I'll go with you and eat my face off. I will go and eat so much food. . Well, speaking of future plans, let's talk about the future, shall we?

Zarah: Yeah, let's do it.

Giana: I would consider myself generally speaking an optimist. And I like to think that the Star Trek universe can happen and a peaceful society of exploration and science and no money can happen . I generally feel like this is a possibility for us most of the time. However, there's a lot of shit going on. There's a lot of darkness out there too. And I find myself dipping from time to time. And so I like to talk to people about their ideas of the future and what they want. And especially parents with young kids because you have this particular intense investment into the future. And so I'd love to talk to you about women and the future that we have towards our quest in equality and what that means while raising two young children.

Zarah: So I would love to anchor my thoughts on the future in my experience birthing in the pandemic. Is that cool?

Giana: Yeah, absolutely.

Zarah: So if there is a moment, if there was a period of time that I think could really encapsulate my thoughts about the future as a mom and as a woman it would be home birthing in the middle of a pandemic. So we had been living in the city, but then as soon as March 2020 hit, we moved up shop to our place up here and just started really getting into the mode of, okay, we're gonna birth in the forest and we have to find a new midwife. We have to get the heat up and running-- because the heat wasn't up and running at this time. We have to get [our son] Felix comfortable, we have to get my bowl of rice, my rice cooker in the right place. Anyway, it was kind of this very even mad rush of we need to make this right because there's no one else, there's no one that the baby can depend on except for us, and we have to make this right.

So May came around and it was this snowstorm in the middle of May and Uma was born in her living room in front of the fire. Me, Matt, together with our midwives, Felix sleeping in the back, in the most beautiful and peaceful and chillax way I could have ever hoped for. And I was like, Well, how is she gonna absorb all of this energy? This is a really crazy time. And I literally held her and she just had this big voice and she just looked at me and it was All Good. And then a couple days later I went out [where] we had a white bunny living under our deck literally. And I kid you that morning she introduced me, she had four of her baby bunnies come out from under the deck. And it was this very special moment where I was like, Oh, you're a mom. And she was basically like, Yeah, I'm a mom.

Giana: With a whole litter.

Zarah: I know, like are you kidding? Who am I if I'm not a mom?

Giana: Oh my god.

Zarah: And so all that to say is that there's no one else to do this than us, and now is the time. And the thing that we can rely on is that people, when they are first earth side, they are ready to--they are so much more ready to just absorb all the good shit and not even know what the bad shit is. And so to me, that is a sign that we have to just shore it up. I mean, we have to work. I mean, there's no point in just sitting around. I mean, I changed my career recently to be a teacher because that's where I felt like it needed to happen, it's needing to happen. And I really think that we shouldn't, I mean, it can be overwhelming, like you're saying, it can be really dark in some of those days. But I really think that we all will pick up on when we can do whatever little thing we can do and we also pick up on when we don't continue those little things that don't make this place a better place. It's just, it's all reading, it's registering. You know what I mean?

Giana: Yeah. You feel it in the air. I gotta hold onto my inner optimist and know that it's there. I have a lot of hope for this current generation right now. There's so much happening in terms of sexuality and gender and just things that I'm really excited about and I'm really proud of the young people right now and what they're doing. I truly am. I'm proud of 'em. And I can't wait when your little ones are in that voting age and what they're gonna bring to the table, and I have great hope. And with parents like you that shower with love and lead with love, I just need more of you willing to do the work.

Zarah: Yeah, I mean I think we're really moving into the place. I mean, I know self care was a thing. I actually am not very fond of that particular term.

Giana: Yeah.

Zarah: Because self care really means you realize no one's watching out for you, so you must take care of yourself. So right now everyone is alone. Everyone's, like I had said before, not being heard…but when we come from a place where we can start seeing each other again and start kind of anticipating each other's needs before that wound has been opened, then that means I think the term self-care will disappear in that wonderful way. Self care right now is it's just like, it's a call for help. It's a big sign. If we start taking care of each other then we just become more than ourselves, and we realize what we each do really affects the other person.

Giana: Yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent. Well, I would love to wrap this up with just little exciting things about the future. I know you have something in the works right now in the theater world which—yay—theater world is coming back…. So if you wanna give just a little tiny teaser, I know you can't go full on, but a little teaser would be great.

Zarah: Yeah. So I am doing video design for a world tour that will, for the first time ever, feature the first female character in this long standing production. And I've been given the honor to design all of her new content. And Giana, I'm gonna add so much awesome nature inspired stuff into that. It's just gonna be amazing. So I'm really glad I'm to be able to represent on that level as a video artist.

Giana: I cannot wait to see this particular project come to fruition. I'm really, really excited. I hope I get the chance to see it right away and just shower you with praise and love for your beautiful work. And keep an eye out on Zarah and so you can be excited about this project with me. Thank you so much for spending this time with me again. I really appreciate you doing this and I look forward to everybody else seeing this post too.

Zarah: All right, thanks Giana. Thanks everyone.

Check out the full interview here: