David F. (2013)

Black is scientifically the absence of color, but not all who see it are color-blind. David F. weaves three stories that take a look at the lineage of African-Americans in the Philippines--from American soldiers in the Philippine-American war to the Amerasians in the former Clark Air Base, and how we Pinoys take to them. It begins with the Philippine-American war in the early 1900's when two Filipinos want to get the reward money for capturing David Fagen, the African-American soldier who deserted the U.S. army to join the Filipino revolutionaries against the new colonizers. Another thread of the film looks at the life of a Filipina during the Japanese occupation before the return of General Douglas MacArthur in 1944 who gives birth to a baby that turns out to be black-skinned. Finally, in contemporary times, a black gay impersonator in a comedy bar, whose father is an African-American soldier based in Clark Air Base in Angeles City, tries to find his father who abandoned him. In the course of history, the "F" in "David F." may spell different levels of discrimination. But would we also admit that we Filipinos are bigots ourselves?