An American Backslider in the Philippines
From Lapu to the Stars - A short film by Dwayne Walker
The Philippines is many things to many people. A place to vacation. A place to retire. A place brimming with history. This is a short movie I would like to expand into a feature film for streaming channels. I already have one movie (Wrestling Then and Now, produced by Evan Ginzburg, associate producer of Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler) on Plex and Tubi and a number of streaming channels. And I hope a lengthier and entertaining version of this movie will join it.
We look at the Philippines from the point of view of an American (myself, if you haven't caught on!) whose kinda tired of the negativity of the United States and wishes he could travel to the Philippines for good! Optimism is dead in America. We want to 'go back' to an era that seems great in retrospect, but pretty terrible depending on what side of the racial barrier you found yourself on. There appears to have been unbounding optimism during the late 19th/early 20th century when people looked forward to what the wonders of science might bring us! (Think Disneyland/Disneyworld's Carousel of Progress.)
Today, science and innovation and diversity finds itself under attack. That's not the case in other countries. Even though the Philippines is a staunchly Roman Catholic country, I swear it seems like alternate lifestyles are probably more tolerated here than they are in the United States.
There is a rich history, a budding space program, a small press literary revolution , and I found my own natural pessimism, during the four times I visited, to be certainly out of character with the people I met. Especially, when I met those affiliated with HAPI, the Humanist Alliance Philippines International. HAPI was founded by a Filipina, Marissa Torres Langseth, and has grown to become a force for education, humanitarianism and benevolence.
This is but a glimpse of the Philippines I visited during the last five years. I wish I was there right now. Like General MacArthur once said, "I shall return!"
Visit the HAPI Humanist site, read about their work, and feel free to contribute! https://hapihumanist.org/
Also, check out my Patreon and help make the feature film a reality: https://www.patreon.com/c/WalkertownMediawerx