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Title:
Love in the Time of Diaspora: Negotiating the Romantic Lives of Migrant Workers in Four Filipino Films from the 1980s to the 2010s

Abstract:
This paper will look into the subject of diaspora in four Filipino films from each decade since the upsurge of Filipino labor export during the Marcos era in the 1980s: ‘Merika (1984) directed by Gil Portes, Sana Maulit Muli (1995) and Milan (2004) directed by Olivia Lamasan, and Never Not Love You (2018) directed by Antoinette Jadaone. Focusing on the lead characters of each film and their struggles in the foreign country (the U.S., Italy, and the U.K.), the discussion will illuminate on the intersections of gender, class, race, and politics that inform the dramatic arcs of their situations as well as the conditions that allow their stories to come about. Indispensable in these narratives is the articulation of romance, seen as crucial in most commercial films about overseas Filipino workers, on which the discourses on identity revealing socioeconomic, spatial, transnational, and cultural relations are hinged, as well as the explorations of the film genre and star system, made evident by the career-defining performances of Nora Aunor, Lea Salonga, Claudine Barretto, and Nadine Lustre.

Bio:
Richard Bolisay is assistant professor at University of the Philippines Film Institute. He obtained his master’s degree from University of Sussex, having previously worked as a film critic for over a decade, with his essays on Philippine cinema published in print and online locally and abroad. A participant of both the Berlinale Talent Press and Locarno Critics Academy, he has served as jury member in film festivals in Manila, Jeonju, and Hong Kong. His first collection of writings will be published in October 2019.