{"id":1769,"date":"2013-09-12T03:54:49","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T03:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/?p=1769"},"modified":"2013-11-25T17:21:42","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T17:21:42","slug":"summer-travels-in-the-philippines-part-ii-filmmaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/?p=1769","title":{"rendered":"Summer Travels in the Philippines. Part II: FIlmmaking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Threese Serana and I have been working on a documentary, which I’ve been calling Visa Wives<\/em> (she likes to call it Filipina Wives<\/em>).\u00a0 We’ve been working on it for close to a year (but done virtually nothing this fall due to other commitments).\u00a0 It’s been a subject we have been talking about for awhile because it routinely generates negative responses: “you mean mail order brides” is pretty typical.\u00a0 Threese did not come to the US on a Fianc\u00e9e Visa but that was more circumstantial than anything else. And we certainly get the not-so-nice vibes that radiate from this assumption with reasonable frequency.\u00a0 When Threese’s sister announced that she was getting married to an American and was coming here on a Fiancee Visa, this propelled us into filmmaking action.\u00a0 We have three couples–plus ourselves inevitably–on whom we are focusing.\u00a0 Her sister and husband Stephen, Threese’s best friend Fleur Harris, who also came on a Fianc\u00e9e Visa, and one of Threese’s cousins who has US citizenship and was bringing over Welchie, now his wife, on a FV.<\/p>\n

\"Threese<\/a>

Threese Serana with Women Waiting to Attend the CFO seminar in Cebu<\/p><\/div>\n

This past summer we went to the Philippines and filmed the back story if you will.\u00a0 The overwhelming number of Filipinos who come to the US on Fianc\u00e9 Visas are women and the largest number of Filipinas on VFs go to the US compared to other countries.\u00a0 Plus the largest number of women coming to the US on VFs are from the Philippines.\u00a0 \"filmingaseminar\"<\/a>All Filipinas must attend an one day seminar at the Commission of Filipinos Overseas in either Cebu or Manila.<\/p>\n

\"Filming<\/a>

Filming Ivy Miravalles, Supervisor of the Commision of Filipinos Overseas<\/p><\/div>\n

So we filmed a number of related scenes, including a long interview with Supervisor Ivy Mirvalles. We were impressed by their insights, dedication and willingness to talk openly about the issues.\u00a0 We also talked to some of the women.\u00a0 As is so often the case, we were moved by their stories, which did not easily conform to the “mail order bride” scenario.<\/p>\n

\"poster-againstHumanTrafficking\"<\/a>\"Mailorderbirdespainting\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Nick Deocampo also pitched in and did some shooting for us at the mall, using his small camera.\u00a0 It was amazing to watch him move through the space with remarkable grace and elegance.<\/p>\n

\"Checking<\/a>

Checking out Nick’s camera at the SM Mall in Quezon CIty<\/p><\/div>\n

If the guys seem to be behind the camera a lot, well that’s because Threese was doing the crucial work in front of the camera.\u00a0 And sometimes she had a chance to photograph us, but not so much vice versa.<\/p>\n

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Threese Serana and I have been working on a documentary, which I’ve been calling Visa Wives (she likes to call it Filipina Wives).\u00a0 We’ve been working on it for close to a year (but done virtually nothing this fall due to other commitments).\u00a0 It’s been a subject we have been talking about for awhile because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[256,213,215,214,151,11,212],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1769"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2011,"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769\/revisions\/2011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charlesmusser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}