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Left By The Ship Italian premiere on November 18th in the Feature Documentary Competition section of the Festival dei Popoli
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A documentary by Emma Rossi-Landi and Alberto Vendemmiati.
Two years in the life of four young Filipino Amerasians as they battle against social stigma, family problems and identity related issues, 18 years after the pullout of the US Bases.
“…The Military need not wage war in another country to kill, maim or hurt that country’s population. Its mere presence, whether in the form of bases or visiting troops is enough to have disastrous consequences to the people particularly to women and children, even after years.”
In the 1970s and 80, the world was touched by the stories of the abandoned Amerasians children, the offspring of the US military, stationed in the East, and Asian women, often impoverished, often prostitutes. In 1982, the US Congress voted to grant US Citizenship to Amerasians from Vietnam, Korea, and Thailand.
Filipino Amerasians were not included, though the Philippines has been a United States ally for more than a century.
Their only hope is to be claimed by their American fathers.
The Subic Bay Naval Base was Largest Naval Base outside mainland USA. The adjacent city of Olongapo provided Rest and Recreation to the US troops during the Vietnam and Korean Wars. in 1992, when the Base closed after 50 years, thousands of Amerasian children were left behind.
Estimated 50,000 Amerasians live in the Philippines today. Abandoned in early life, living with the stigma of being illegitimate children, unable to escape prejudice due to their physical features, they are outcast, mocked with names like “left by the ship”. The children of African American soldiers are particularly victims of discrimination.
The children we saw on the news many years back have now grown; the youngest Amerasians are now entering adulthood. What is it like to be an Amerasian in the Philippines today, 17 years after the closure of the Bases?
For several months during the course of the past two years, we have closely followed the lives of four young Amerasian adults in Olongapo City, in their daily struggle to overcome a past they are in no way responsible for.
Europe’s largest chinese community in its most racist country.
A documentary by Vincenzo de Cecco & Riccardo Cremona
Five aspiring beauty queens, five ordinary families of migrants. Between restaurants, textile factories, import export wholesalers. A trip through Italy following their traces. Only to discover that, between excruciatingly wearing shifts, those mothers we believed were working machines, get moved to tears in talking about their daughters. The same daughters who are certain only of one thing: they don’t want to repeat their parent’s tiresome life. Chinese girls in Italy with the same aspirations as any other teenager but facing the problems both of growing up and having to shoulder family responsibilities beyond their years. First and second generations facing each other.
And Italians on the side who, forced to compare themselves with Chinese immigrants suddenly find that they are tired, dispirited, frightened and resentful – in fact it’s easier to fear the ‘other’ than to come to terms with yourself.
Miss Little China has been published on DVD by Chiarelettere and broadcast by Current Italia.
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A documentary series by Vincenzo de Cecco & Riccardo Cremona