Review of The Debut

The Debut (2000)
well worth the $8, a jewel of a film!
16 April 2001
Thank goodness for indie films! Are you are sick and tired of stupid formulaic, cookie-cutter hollywood movies? Then this is a film you want to watch. If you're Fil-Am or have friends who are, you'll going to enjoy this immensely. It captures so many little facets of the Fil-Am culture clash/identity crisis that so many of us go through. I've read & heard about the great amount of difficulty it took to make this film (my daughter attended a Union City, CA screening where the director was present) and I'm not at all surprised that Hollywood displayed no interest in producing or distributing a film about `minorities'-not enough white faces in the film to attract a mainstream audience, right?

Thank you, Gene Cajayon, for making this film, and I wish you the best in your career as a director. Robert Rodriguez and Spike Lee started out doing small films, so I really hope this catches the eye of the industry. Maybe a screening at the Sundance? Perhaps the best thing this film will do is kindle interest in young Fil-Ams about their heritage, culture and history.

Do did you know that:

  • before the Vietnam War, there was the Philippine `insurrection' that claimed 100,000 Filipino lives


  • the .45 was developed specifically to kill the Filipino `insurgent'


  • the slang term `boonies' or `boondocks' used to describe a place located way out in the countryside originates from the Tagalog word `bundok', meaning `mountain'


Filipinos are bit more interwoven in the American social fabric than we realize, and with this film, we're a little bit less invisible.
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