Under the American Sun (Camp Roxas Film Project) tells the story of Filipino-American immigrants to Guam, the Ilonggos from Iloilo Province, who arrived in 1946 at Camp Roxas in Agat, Guam, after World War II as part of the military reconstruction effort. Their arrival and settlement laid the foundation for four generations of Ilonggos to become Filipino-Americans and part of the Guam community.
The year 2006 marked the 60th anniversary of these first Filipino immigrants to arrive in Guam. Marked by struggle, perseverance, hard work, adaptation and ultimately success, theirs is a true immigrant story.
This project will entail collecting oral histories and archival research of their journey from the Philippines. These materials will be the basis of a 60-minute documentary film.
The Camp Roxas film project will be told principally through the reminiscences of a 'veteran' of the Ilonggo migration, Loreto Parenas Provido, and his wife, Bernadita Confesor Juadiong. Provido is the father of Producer Bernadette Provido Schumann.
Because of his advanced age and infirmity, Schumann felt it imperative to record his moving oral history. In the process of preparing for the film project, Schumann is discovering much about the family she had not previously known, and, just as important, is discovering her own attitudes about the migration. Shame, disdain, and grief are typical "second generation" feelings about the Camp Roxas experience.
Schumann will examine her own belief system in the Camp Roxas Film Project, a process that will be likely be enlightening to all westernized children of native-born Asian-Pacific and
Bernie Provido Schumann with film crew on location at the Tamuning, Guam, residence of her parents Bernardita Confesor Juadiong and Loreto Parrenas Provido.
Loreto Parrenas Provido, who passed away in July 2009, was in declining health as he tells the story of Camp Roxas through his daughter, Bernadette Provido Schumann, producer. (Video capture image by Burt Sardoma Jr.)
1960s Provido family portrait (From the private collection of Bernardita Confesor Juadiong and Loreto Parrenas Provido)
Bernadette Provido Schumann, a short- and long-distance runner, will examine her own attitudes as a second-generation Filipino-American on Guam. (Video capture image by Burt Sardoma Jr.)
Pacific Island people. Other oral histories from the initial immigrants, many of whom are now in their 80s, as well as their descendants, will supplement Provido's account.
The Camp Roxas Film Project will also be told through extensive archival content documenting the Ilonggo journey from the Philippines to Guam. Under the American Sun will provide vivid visual representations of place - Iloilo Province from which the Ilonggo people were recruited, and Camp Roxas, Guam - to give viewers a sense of what the Ilonggos left behind, and what they faced as they entered the war-ravaged U.S. Territory.
The filrn's outreach and marketing effort will target audiences throughout the Pacific Islander, Asian Pacific, and West Coast communities, and will also be directed toward film festivals and other exhibition opportunities throughout the United States and Europe. Naturally, the Filipino and non-Filipino communities in Guam will be the film's most significant target audiences, edifying and inspiring future generations.
