Film fest organized to raise lobby funds for Fil-Am vets

WASHINGTON DC (via PLDT) — A film festival featuring Filipino-Americans who made in good in Hollywood will help raise funds to push for the passage of the Filipino World War II Veterans Equity bill, President Arroyo said yesterday.

A certified movie buff, Mrs. Arroyo announced that the forthcoming film fest would screen films of at least four Hollywood stars, including a producer. She admitted, though, that these would be reruns.

The movies of actors Lou Diamond Philips, Tia Carrere, Rob Schneider and producer Dean Devlin will be screened during the film fest, the President said, digressing from her prepared speech at the welcome dinner reception hosted for her state visit here by the Filipino community at the Capitol Hilton Hotel.

"So since many Filipinos don’t know that these icons in mainstream Hollywood are Filipino-Americans, we should celebrate Filipino-American Week that starts July 4 with a Film Festival showing the movies of these four (stars)," she told her audience of Filipino professionals who migrated to the US and became American citizens.

Mrs. Arroyo particularly cited Philips and Devlin as the most active supporters of the Filipino WWII Equity bill, having traced their roots to the home country.

The father of Philips — known for his US television series "Head of the Class" and movies like "La Bamba" — was an American soldier stationed in the former US naval base in Subic where he married Lou’s Filipino mother, she said.

On the other hand, Devlin is the grandson of a veteran from Iloilo, and has produced movies such as "Independence Day," "The Patriot," and the Hollywood adaptation of the Japanese science fiction thriller, "Godzilla."

"So we should be showing reruns during that Filipino-American Friendship Week and the proceeds of the film festival should go to the funds... the lobby for the Equity bill," the President said.

"It’s also a great way to showcase Philippine-American ties. And we should be proud of these Hollywood stars and that big Hollywood producer who are very, very proud of their mothers who are Filipinas," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo noted that when she met with Philips last year in Los Angeles during her first working visit to the US, the actor had already been "very, very supportive" for the Filipino WW II Veterans bill. This same concern was reiterated by Philips during their second meeting last year.

She recalled that Philips already did a video supporting the Equity bill and that he even came to Capitol Hill here to testify at the US Congress public hearing for the bill.

"And what they said is probably get Rob Schneider and Tia Carrera in because they are also Fil-Ams and they would like to shoot the video in the Philippines," she disclosed.

While she was in Los Angeles on the first stopover of her state visit last Saturday night, the President said Devlin paid a courtesy call on her.

"He (Devlin) is the producer of all those blockbusters, so he is a very, very successful Filipino-American. And actually it was Dea, even then, who produced the video that Lou Diamond appeared in," she said.

"So he said they are willing to do it all over again. They are willing to testify again if they need to," she added.

Mrs. Arroyo vowed to utilize the popular following of these Fil-Am stars in Hollywood to make sure that this time, the Equity bill gets approved by the US Congress, a topic which she promised to take up with US President George W. Bush in their talks this morning.