Pictures of How You Never Lived Back Home

Short film / 5mins / 2019

a visual poem by Chloe Samillano

cinematography by Chloe Samillano & Lela Turner

based on the short story "Lectures on How You Never Lived Back Home" by M. Evelina Galang

During my undergrad at San Francisco State, I produced/directed/edited a short film for my Asian American Media Workshop class. Our assignment was to adapt a written work from an Asian-American writer, so I chose M. Evelina Galang’s short story/spoken word. Her story explores the introspection of growing up as a Filipino in America and the certain privileges that brings compared to those who grew up in the Philippines. I decided to name my piece “Pictures of How You Never Lived Back Home” to signify my visual adaptation of Galang’s words, which I molded to fit my own personal experience in the Filipnx diaspora.

The end result is a self-reflective piece. I shot footage in San Francisco, Moreno Valley (my hometown), and included clips from my vacation in the Philippines. I wanted to capture the movement of my journey through showing the different settings and spaces I lived and grew up in. I also incorporated family photos and childhood videos to make the film feel like a love letter to my family and my upbringing.