Filipinos in the most easterly province of Canada are the subject of a new documentary drama by the National Film Board.
According to a report by CBC, poet and author Michael Crummey wrote the script for the docudrama expected to be finished in 2017. The film will feature three stories.
One of the characters is a Filipino woman who immigrated to Labrador during the 1960s. Another woman arrived a few years ago, and is married to a local person, the CBC reported.
The island of Newfoundland and Labrador in the mainland comprises a province in Canada’s Atlantic region. It’s the youngest province in the country.
Crummey, who is based in Newfoundland, has won several awards for his poetry and prose. His first novel River Thieves, published in 2001, was a Canadian bestseller.
The CBC reported that filmmakers Rohan Fernando, Justin Simms, Epitacia Bruce, and Tamara Segura are in Labrador to shoot the film.
Segura, who immigrated from Cuba in 2010, said in the report that Crummey has written: “wonderful, evocative scripts” that will be translated to film.
Segura also said that as a newcomer, she is familiar with the challenges faced by immigrants in Canada.
Segura stated that her sense of shared experience with Filipinos in Labrador motivates her work in the film project.
A filmmaker originally from Sri Lanka, Fernando noted in the CBC report that Filipinos in Labrador are very resilient. He said that the immigrants have adapted well in Labrador.
In the 2011 Census, the total population of Newfoundland and Labrador was 514,536. More than 97 percent reported English only as mother tongue. Some 315 residents indicated in the Census that they speak Tagalog.
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