Being Filipino Overseas

LONDON – It’s a fantastic time to be in London while interested in the Philippines. By the time this article is published , at the highly respected School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London participants will be well into the second day of the third annual Philippines Studies Conference focusing on Mindanao. In a week or so Filikino, an event dedicated to showcasing classical and contemporary Filipino film will screen “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon” (“As We Were”). Made in 1976 and starring Christopher de Leon, it’s a classic movie that explores the notion of Philippine identity - material that at face value, may seem incongruous or irrelevant to a London audience. These are just a couple of events in a calendar of activities designed by their organisers to draw in a wider audience of anyone who’s interested to find out about the Philippines.

“This film questions how a sense of nationalism… like collective consciousness is formed, about who we are, how do we define that, and then in terms of the genre of the golden era of Philippine cinema,” says Anna de Guia Eriksson, about “Ganito…” She founded Filikino. “When I first saw this film I was reading a lot of Philippine history and having my own kind of awakening about what it means to be Filipino. I found it very interesting to consider the term “Filipino” and how that has changed – how it meant something completely different before the revolution, and how it meant something completely different after. (The film is) I guess like a tool to consider…  I don’t want to say where we are as a nation because that sounds really big… but in a sense how we define ourselves as Filipinos,” she says.

The seed of Eriksson’s personal interest here in London’s cultural soil, has grown into something that can be shared with everyone, not just because of the multicultural nature of the city, but because of the very real physical and financial opportunities. “Practically speaking, there are funding opportunities that are available to me that I don’t think are available in the Philippines.” Ericsson explains. Her curation of films is eye-opening and horizon-widening, including documentaries with a strong bias towards providing films that wouldn’t get shown otherwise because they’re often small budget independent works such as Jewel Maranan’s “Sa Palad ng Dantaong Kulang” (“In the Claws of a Century Wanting”) and Lino Brocka’s “Insiang.”

“There’s an existing culture of independent programming that I can tap into, and a whole network of people who are doing the same sort of thing, and to some extent a ready audience who may not necessarily know about Philippine film but are open to viewing something different. Other than that, I think the chances of my getting in other Filipinos here, who might see something different is just a lot greater than back in the Philippines where you have certain types of film that are shown and people don’t really want to stray away from that because that’s what they know, whereas I think here I’m enticing people with something that comes from home but you probably would not consume at home.”

Cristina Juan, senior teaching fellow, who’s pretty much single-handedly revived the course over the last three years also wants the whole range of Philippine arts and scholarship to reach a wider audience, that’s why she set up the conference. “People are welcome to come to the talks and go in and out. Some of the talks are popularising Mindanaoan culture, for example by people who are coming from the Philippines and are really embedded in the community, they’re not armchair academics. What we’re trying to do is have a wide range of things, it’s not just for academics, we mix it with performances, we have an art exhibit and we have crafts and books.”

Talking with both Juan and Eriksson, there is a real sense that what they’re doing is filling in wide gaps in the understanding of the Philippines that they have felt strongly enough to share with everyone else. The fact that they are in London, as far as they are concerned, complements what is being done back home and has an impact there too.

“Ganito” is set during the Philippines’ war of independence but is still deeply relevant, according to Eriksson. “The Philippines was still forming as a nation. Now more than a hundred years later, everyone seems to talk about Filipino-ness as something that’s defined and set but I don’t think it is,” she explains. “There are all kinds of local domestic discussions about for example whether you’re indigenous or not, whether you’re mixed with something else or not, whether you’re the “right kind of Filipino” or not. Sure you know you could write these rumination off as some sort of existential identity crisis, these sorts of questions and the answers that they give also have a very real effect on policy for example on land rights, doling out land back to indigenous people. Some politicians think this (identifying as indigenous) is defining yourself as against the Philippines … so questions of nationhood and whether you belong or not are still very, very sensitive matters.”

The effect of having such discussions in London, provides a perspective that can be more open and inclusive of all points of view and showcases what’s being done in the Philippines itself by people who live there. Eriksson and Juan’s projects satisfy a hunger that’s come about with the advent of mass migration, the internet to create spaces for Filipinos who seek something more than the occasional marking of holidays. “There are so many Filipinos in London,” remarks Juan, “you can’t just offer barrio fiesta all the time because there are some  people who are really interested in events that go deeper than entertainment.”

As Eriksson puts it: “You’ll throw something out and you don’t really know how, what sort of effect it’s going to have or even if it will have an effect… you never know what that could turn into. Maybe it turns into someone making a film, or someone has a political awakening or an awakening in their own identity or artistically or even just in terms of connections people make.”

These open minded and hearted projects suggest something truly important to me: that the seas that divide us also unite us.