"Sa Amin" (Our Place)

Contribute to our campaign to finish the new documentary “Sa Amin” (Our Place), the untold story of Filipino community activists and multigenerational families in San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMa) who claim a right to the city as they battle displacement caused by urban renewal, real estate speculation and tech booms, and in doing so sustain the cultural heart of the Filipino-American community.   

Feel free to follow us for updates on upcoming screenings @sfurbanfilmfest on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

[Pistahan Parade on Market Street, San Francisco]

Rare archival footage from Sam Tagatac, some never seen by the public, and interviews with community stalwarts including Tony Grafilo, Jeanne Battalones, and Bob Illumin, are woven into the stories of present day Filipino families, leaders, activists and artists including Tina Alejo, Teresa Dulalas, MC Canlas and Alleluia Panis. 

[Tony Grafilo, Co-Founder of the Pilipino Organizing Committee (POC)]

The film is part of a comprehensive grassroots strategy to bolster a Filipino community continually at risk of displacement. 

Join the movement by supporting the “Sa Amin” film.

[Photo of kids playing in an alley in SoMa from the 1970s]

For over 100 years, San Francisco’s SoMa has been an important landing place for Filipino immigrants, who have fought to stay in the neighborhood, despite urban renewal demolishing entire city blocks and real estate speculation driving displacement accelerating with the dot com boom and continuing to today. Filipinos have built cultural institutions such as Kularts dance and the Bindlestiff performing arts program, as well as educational resources including the Tagalog/English bi-lingual program now integrated into the San Francisco public school system. 

[Two people witness building demolition during urban renewal in the Yerba Buena Redevelopment Area in the late 1960s]

The film’s Filipina co-directors Dyan Ruiz and Nix Guirre both are deeply rooted in the SoMa activist and Filipino cultural communities. Nix and her family lived in a cramped apartment in the Mint Mall where tech companies tried to illegally displace Filipino businesses during the dot com boom. As a co-founder of [people.power.media], Dyan reported and published countless stories of evictions of Filipino families and seniors from SoMa that were picked up by mainstream media. 

Because of their years of service and contributions, they were able to access interviews of revered long-standing community leaders who led the early struggles including MC Canlas, Tony Grafilo, and Bob Ilumin. The directors were also entrusted with stirring and stinging testimony from Teresa Dulalas of the pain of repeated evictions and displacement battles, and from Tina Alejo of the proposed closing of a vital cultural institution, the Filipino bilingual education program. “Sa Amin” beautifully weaves the stories of past and present, with the help of original music by the Filipina composer Rachel Lastimosa, underscoring the continuity of struggle, resistance and intergenerational community building. 

[Teresa and Marti Dulalas walking in SoMA, the Salesforce Tower in background] 

The “Sa Amin” film is significant not only for the Filipino community but also to San Francisco as whole because Filipinos continue in the present day to fight for their right to the City on behalf of themselves but all working class people. The story of Filipinos in SoMa is important because unlike other neighborhoods such as Chinatown or the Mission, the relentless displacement pressures and speculation have made it nearly impossible to establish an apparent cultural presence and permanent physical presence in the neighborhood. The “Sa Amin” film itself will help to claim space for Filipino-Americans in the greater narrative of San Francisco, and in doing so help pave the way for the community to continue to claim the space in reality.

[Activists standing next to banner in an alleyway in SoMa] 

Our goal is to fund the gap of $20,000 for editing and post-production. The editor, composer, sound engineer, color correction specialist, translators, graphic designers, subtitle specialists, digital archivist and other technical consultants all worked overtime to make this final cut happen and now we need to compensate them. 

We created a stretch goal of $35,000 to make sure the legacy of the Filipino SoMa community is distributed widely to national and global audiences.

$20,000  Post production

$10,000  Theatrical and broadcast compliance 

$  5,000  Impact Producer

$35,000  TOTAL

The stretch goal funds would pay for technical processes required for the film to be accepted to film festivals and aired on television. These processes include high-res color correction, sound mastering/mixing, adding Tagalog closed captions, producing DCP files, and printing posters and other promotional materials. Our film is in excellent shape but we need your help for the last push, which is critical in order to send the film to national and global platforms.

["Sa Amin" film crew interviewing Angelica Cabande] 

The project started as a 10 minute short video but grew to a 40 minute documentary film as we began to recover the rich history of the Filipino community in the South of Market (SoMa) documented in archival video footage, photographs of Filipino families and activists, and rare documents. With all of these resources surfacing, the two Filipina co-directors felt compelled to capture and preserve the untold and almost lost story of their community. Although we had seed funding from the California Arts Council for a short video, we went into debt to produce the longer documentary film to bring to light and show respect to the tireless and courageous activism of the Filipino youth, families, educators and organizers.  

Your support of the film’s completion and distribution also supports the continued thriving of a courageous, creative, and vibrant Filipino community in South of Market San Francisco that is the cultural hub for the entire region.

[Families and neighbors holding up drawings and plans for SoMa]

In service of community, the independent artists on this film have worked on the project for 3 years with a minimal film budget, while dealing with a pandemic and tackling serious medical challenges. 

Contributing to the “Sa Amin” film will mean the Filipino community in SoMa can continue to thrive, the legacy of their significant cultural contributions will be recognized and lessons for future generations will be passed on - thank you!

[ Students at the Bessie Carmichael School at an anti-displacement rally chanting the “SOMA Bow” around 2000 during the dot com boom ]