Manilatown Is In The Heart

plays with The Oak Park Story

(USA, 2008, 58 mins, Video)

Producer/Editor: Curtis Choy
Cinematographers: Emiko Omori, Choy
Sound: Myron Chan, Frances Nkara
Music: Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, Kevin McLeod

In Person: Curtis Choy

Asian America suffered a great loss in 2009 when Al Robles passed away. He spent a lifetime caring for the manongs (Filipino bachelors who immigrated to the U.S. as workers in the early 1900s) and connecting the generations. Armed with a tape recorder and his own affability, Al “talked story” with manongs in cramped bedrooms, Manilatown pool halls, and the fields of the Central Valley, transforming their tales of forgotten landscapes and steamy fish-head soup into lyrical poems. Faced with making a documentary on someone who deflects attention–Al didn’t even show up to his own book release party–director Curtis Choy culled through outtakes from his award-winning film THE FALL OF THE I-HOTEL, which spotlighted the manongs and featured Robles. These archival scenes, combined with poetry by Robles, Lou Syquia and Janice Mirikitani, and recent footage of Al roaming San Francisco streets, reveal a whimsical man who dedicated a lifetime to the downtrodden and dispossessed. With the passing of “Manong Al,” MANILATOWN becomes not just a profile of, but also a loving tribute to the manong generation and its greatest chronicler.

-- Robynn Takayama

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