''Left by the Ship'' is a 2010 documentary film directed by Emma Rossi Landi and Alberto Vendemmiati following two years in the life of four Filipino

Amerasians An Amerasian may refer to a person born in Asia to an Asian people, Asian mother and a United States Armed Forces, U.S. military father. Other terms used include War babies or G.I. babies. There are also those who may have mothers in the U.S. milit ...

, co-produced by Italian production company VisitorQ, together with Rai Cinema, ITVS international (USA) and

YLE Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...

(Finland). The film was shot in the Philippines, mostly in the town of

Olongapo Olongapo, officially the City of Olongapo ( fil, Lungsod ng Olongapo; ilo, Siudad ti Olongapo; xsb, Siyodad nin Olongapo), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Located in the province of Zambales ...

, between 2007 and 2009.

Background

For more than 50 years, thousands of American servicemen were stationed at Subic Bay in the Philippines. Many of these men fathered children with the women who lived nearby. Throughout the decades, and in particular when the base closed in 1992, thousands of Amerasian children were left behind, stripped of their fathers and their sense of identity. While Amerasian children from other countries like

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

benefit from the law known as the Amerasian Act, Filipino Amerasians cannot. The film follows the lives of four Amerasians in the Philippines today as the struggle to overcome a past they are in no way responsible for.

Awards

''Left by the Ship'' won best documentary feature at the Guam Film Festival, the Cinema.Doc prize at the

Festival dei Popoli A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

, Best Global Documentary at the International Film Festival Manhattan, 2011 and Best Social Justice film at the Disorient film Festival among others. It was also presented at the San Diego Asian American Film Festival, Artivist Film Festival in Hollywood, at the San Francisco Doc Fest and at

Oaxaca Film Fest Oaxaca FilmFest was an eight-day long international film festival that was permanently cancelled in 2022 without taking place, once it could no longer hide the fact that it devolved into a calculated scam to prey on unknowing filmmakers. At its st ...

. The TV version of the film aired on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

Independent Lens on May 24, 2012.

References

External links

* Italian documentary films Documentary films about United States history Documentary films about race and ethnicity Films shot in the Philippines 2010 films 2010 documentary films Left {{hist-documentary-film-stub