Selected Works


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Sai Versailles
Multimedia Journalist
📍 Manila, Philippines



VICE • Reportage
How the Philippine Drug War Could Kill the Underground Dance Scene →

A controversial drug raid leads to the closure of a dance club in Manila, leaving a music subculture lost and scrambling.


VICE • Reportage, Photo
How the Catholic Church is Helping, and Hurting, the Philippines’ Poorest People →

The Church is running poverty alleviation programs in communities like Tondo. But it's also fighting against policies that could help them.  

VICE • Profile
This Artist is the Only Man Ever Convicted of Blasphemy in Modern Philippines →

Carlos Celdran took on the church eight years ago and the fight took over his life.

MUNCHIES • Feature, Print
Filipino Chefs Are Taking Back Control of Their Cuisine →

Filipino food is gaining worldwide popularity. But as the diaspora grapples with the country's multicultural history, the cuisine's identity is yet to be established.


Featured on VICE magazine’s “Borders” Issue →

CNN • Reportage
For Metro Manila’s cyclists, National Bicycle Day was like any other day  

Cyclists from all over the Metro celebrated the fourth Sunday of November on their bikes, ingraining why a day like this is needed in the first place.

CNN • Feature
In Manila, Heritage Architecture Struggles to Survive →

With the Capitol Theatre — one of Manila's last remaining art-deco theaters — now gone, the city's cultural landmarks face a precarious future.

VICE • Photo, Reportage
Black Friday Protest, May 2022 →

Activist groups in the Philippines rallied in the capital Manila on May 13 to protest what they claim to be fraud in the 2022 presidental elections, in which a deceased dictator’s son looks poised to win as president.

Out of Print • Profile
Luis Lopa at a Crossroad in Three Acts →

A writer sets out on a script about a painter at a crossroad, making sense of surfing, the banes of technology, and art's value in the world.

Out of Print • Profile
There’s a Bit of Bree Jonson in All of Us →

To those who knew the artist, no headline could ever capture the complex truth of her humanity. But there are beautiful traces of it.

Biter • Essay
Breakfast Interrupted

Drawing from real life events, Sai Versailles reflects on her complicated adolescence and the impact it had on her diet.



L’Officiel magazine • Profile
On the Beauty of Friendship and Circumstance →

To curator Diana Campbell Betancourt, thriving cultures are deeply rooted in a desire for human connection.

Buy the print issue →

CNN • Feature
Plant Parenting as a Response to Our Lack of Urban Green
Spaces →

The cult of plant parenthood comes as a response to reclaim the right to green spaces, prioritizing the residential over the commercial interest.


Manila Community Radio • Radio, Video Perception Is Real, the Truth Is Not: Dissecting 'The Kingmaker'

MCR examines some hard questions by taking another look at Lauren Greenfield's cutting profile of the Marcos matriarch, Imelda. Together with film critic Philbert Dy, DAKILA-Active Vista campaigns director Mark Fortaleza, and host Sai Versailles of Cultural Learnings, we try to unpick the truth from lies, and ponder on our nation's past, present, and future.

Manila Community Radio • Radio, Video
Panel Discussion: Women In Cycling

Hear women's perspectives in cycling culture as Sai Versailles of Cultural Learnings drives this roundtable discussion with Pam Angeles (Bikeary Bicycle Lifestyle), Thysz Estrada (creative director and writer), Marla Darwin (Design Director, Natural Selection Design), and Corinna Pettyjohn (2 Wheels 3 Hearts).

Courier magazine • Feature
A tour of Manila’s cultural quarter →

Each issue, we link up with locals in cities around the world to uncover what it's like to live and work there. Here, Sai Versailles takes the pulse of Poblacion.

Buy the print issue →



Biography

Sai Versailles traverses the fields of art and multimedia journalism, engaging with the multitude of ways people understand culture, history, and politics.

As a multimedia journalist, her reporting investigates the sociopolitical dynamics of creativity, exploring the everyday lives of people and their communities.

As a selector under her pseudonym Versailles, she describes her approach as "referential" – whether in her incorporation of sound bites and field recordings into DJ sets, or by shuffling through densely layered repetitions of a cross-generational sound.

Versailles is a resident of Refuge Worldwide with her show ‘Master Selector,’ and is a volunteer managing partner and archivist of Manila Community Radio.

She holds an MPhil from the University of Oxford, and has participated in public discussions on culture throughout the UK, Philippines, and Germany.


Press
 
Feature
Vogue Philippines, 2023.


Feature
Mixmag Asia, 2023.


Podcast interview
Dead Air Podcast, 2022


Interview
Mixmag Asia, 2021.


Feature
Out Of Print, 2021.


Podcast interview
Monday Off Radio, 2020


Feature
nolisoli.ph, 2019.



Vogue Philipines, May 2023
Shot by Sharif Hamza