An Immigrant's Tale
Angie M.
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This clip is two scenes from my documentary, “An Immigrant’s Tale”, in which I dive deeper into my parents’ immigration story and compare and contrast their childhoods to my brother’s. I made this film for my school’s Junior Fellowship program, in which four students from the junior class were selected to complete a self-directed learning experience over the summer. Being one of these four, I was tasked to complete my proposed project of making a film on a budget. I used resources I already had, like my phone, and bought other film equipment that fit my budget. This specific topic that I chose to focus on is something extremely close to home. My goal with this art piece was to give recognition to an aspect of my identity as a Filipino-American. Growing up, I never saw my culture receiving recognition on the big screen, and I struggled to relate to the people around me. Living in Marin, the population of Filipinos I have met has been minimal, and I never really was around people I could easily identify with culturally. Making a documentary about the Philippines helped me fill in this void and explore the Filipino identity more, while also being able to educate an audience that may not know much about the culture. This being my first film, I gained an immense amount of knowledge on this type of art and connected more with a missing piece of my identity.
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Creativity, the freedom to express one’s imagination in an inventive manner. Specifically, the art of filmmaking has given me a voice to speak up about matters that I care deeply about and illustrate them in a fascinating way. Filming is an outlet for me that I can always depend on.
