The title of the film, a portmanteau of Filipino and American, sets the horizon of expectation right at the start. The pursuit to not only belong and find a sense of belonging but also figure out ideas of self and identity, where you came from in order to understand where you are headed, become core thematic concerns of the film. The engagement with all of these remains lucid and earnest throughout. 
Our protagonist is a young boy who finds himself straddling two identities without being sure on which side he truly falls. If on the one hand, he wears Nikes and eats bacon, his connection to the culinary aspect of his Filipino heritage, as well as his strong desire to explore more of it, remains unshakeable, alongside uncertainty and doubts. The narrative shows how the two can indeed co-exist in a person. 
The film presents an engagement with all of this and some more in a unique, authentic voice that is controlled and understated in a notable manner. The final result exhibits more potential in terms of storytelling and screenplay than could be explored in this brief project. It should definitely be interacted with further in subsequent endeavors.

FilAm | Short Film of the Day

The Covid-19 pandemic ushered with it a reality that deprived us completely of any semblance of the world as we knew it. Amidst every corner of the virtual space spewing words like "the new normal" and "unprecedented times", and the tedium of video calls and incessant work meetings, we were left drowning in this abruptly changed, completely alien way of life. 

The short film conjures the same reality as it takes us into the experiences of the protagonist, a woman who is quarantined by herself. While disturbing news headlines continue to break the silence of her empty house, the consequent emotional and physical isolation threatens to overpower her existence further. If the lockdown had begun with a routine of exercise, fulfilling work duties and finding a general order to things in life during lockdown, it has now devolved into despair, lethargy and lack of interest in the same activities which had once kept her afloat. 

 While we may be all too familiar with the bleakness and despondency that came to predominate our lives during this time, the plot wants to take it a step further and remind you of the hope that still shines through it. Though the pandemic might have brought the world to a halt, we are all indeed together in it, and the film wants to simply employ the thought as a reminder that this too will be over soon, enabling us to emerge out of it stronger.

Tony Marquez

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