LIHUE — To celebrate October as Filipino American History Month, the Kauai Philippine Cultural Center and Kukui Grove Center co-host the Garden Island Film Festival.
The GIFF is screening two films about Filipinos by Kauai filmmaker Stephanie J. Castillo at Kukui Grove Center on Wednesday, Oct. 23, starting at 6 p.m. Castillo is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker with Kauai family roots.
Both showings are free.
• 6 p.m. – “An Untold Triumph: America’s Filipino Soldiers” The story of the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments, U.S. Army (2006, 82 minutes).
During World War II, 7,000 Filipino Americans volunteered their services to the U.S. Army and helped liberate their homeland from Japanese occupation. Director Noel M. Izon captures their stories through the voices of the veterans themselves, most of them gone now, and delivers touching personal accounts of the men’s contributions and sacrifices during the war. Despite the fact that they endured a bleak, racist prewar climate and were not even considered U.S. citizens, these individuals rallied to join the war effort and cement their rightful place in American history.
• 7:30 p.m. “Remember the Boys, A Story of Hawaii Filipino Soldiers in World War II” (2007, 30 minutes)
“Remember the Boys” poignantly captures the inspiring, true story of a chaplain to his war buddies. Born in Hawaii, Domingo Los Banos was a U.S. World War II soldier who went to war in the Philippines as a teenager with some 50 other teenagers of Filipino ancestry from Hawaii.
A son of a Filipino immigrant now in his 80s, Los Banos is among the last remaining of the 50 “Hawaii boys” from the U.S. Army’s 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiment. As they fall sick, it is Domingo who ministers to them and their families and who eulogizes them when they pass on. To assure their memories are not lost on their families or the public, they help create a commemorative pictoral book and a documentary film that went national prime time on PBS. “Remember the Boys” is a tribute to caring, the power of friendship and the cherishing of memories.
The celebration of Filipino American History Month in October commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States, which occurred on Oct. 18, 1587, when “Luzones Indios” came ashore from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Esperanza and landed at what is now Morro Bay, Calif.
In 2009, the U.S. Congress recognized October as Filipino American History Month in the United States. Various states, counties and cities in the U.S. have established proclamations and resolutions declaring observance of Filipino American History Month.
