Then and Now
A comedy-drama about a queer Filipino girl’s coming- of-age story.
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Like most coming-of-age tales, “Then and Now” deals with identity, friendships, and family dynamics. But it refreshes the genre by portraying it through the lens of a queer Filipino girl’s experience and how she navigates through the world. The stories are culturally-specific as it has the added stakes of family tradition, responsibility, and being queer in a heteronormative world. But all the while universal as it tackles the desire for individual agency, self- acceptance, and trying to understand where you come from.
The series chronologically depicts a modern-day college experience - an experience said to be “the best years of our lives”. For some that is true, for others it isn’t, but for all it is a time of growth and transformation. But we didn’t know that yet. Not til later at least.
In the beginning, college felt new and exciting. It was a new chapter and the possibilities were endless. We can reinvent ourselves, we can make our own schedules, we can meet new people, and finally, we can drink, party, and stay out as late as we can. We can finally be free. But, that new freedom also came with new challenges. Every major decision felt like it was life and death. Every mistake we made felt like an atomic bomb on our future. Reality felt heightened because there was so much money on the line. The world saw us as adults, but we were as lost as anybody else. No one was gonna tell us what to do. We were not in high school anymore.
We had to really figure ourselves out.
This is everything Kaye Santos is about to go through. She’s a little Filipino bird about to fly out of her immigrant mother’s nest. She’s young, naive, and sheltered. She’s never been kissed, she’s never had a drink, she’s never stayed out past 9pm. She wants to reinvent herself, but is afraid to go outside her comfort zone. It’s especially difficult when her mom, Carlotta, is calling her every week and wanting to know her whereabouts. She’s also having trouble letting go of the past because her “obviously straight” high school crush, Ana, is also going to the same college as her. College is already tough but when you’re a first- generation immigrant, confused about your sexuality, and unaware of your social anxiety, this new world feels like a war zone.
The central theme of the series is one of family and identity - and how those two collide. It will explore the idea of collectivism versus individualism. Specifically with how the cultural nuances of the Filipino heritage can make it difficult to fully express yourself. Though the story mostly follows Kaye, we will also explore the life of her sisters Christine and Cyan, and her brother Justin, and how their journey represents different struggles of being Filipino in American society. We will also meet people in Kaye’s new world, her roommate, Natalie, and older college students, Lucia and Sebastian, who are part of a Professional Cinema Fraternity that Kaye ends up joining. It is through this organization that Kaye finds her community but also becomes more aware of college social politics and the exclusivity of the film world. At its core, however, the series is about a mother and daughter’s relationship, as it will tackle how much our upbringing affects the way we navigate through the world.
For most of us, college was a pivotal time to our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. It made us question things we’ve always thought to be true. We go through so many obstacles and setbacks, that we forget that we’re even in it for the diploma.
*The Pilot of the series has been awarded the following:
Semi-Finalist, Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition (2020)
Quarter-Finalist, Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Competition (2020)