LUMPIA

Free screening! To be followed by free lumpia reception before the screening of the long-awaited sequel Lumpia with a Vengeance (requires separate admission).

In what is likely the most bootstrapped feature film in SDAFF history, LUMPIA takes place in the fictional Fogtown, home to one of the biggest populations of Filipinos in America, where newly immigrated families settle down alongside those who have been here for decades. Narrated by Joy Bisco (The Debut, SDAFF ‘00), this comic book-inspired tale focuses on James aka Mon Mon, and his neighborhood friends, who must confront Tyrone, leader of the Fil-Am gang of bullies, with the help of a local lumpia-slinging superhero. Their journey to summon the inner strength needed to face down these bullies takes us through dance tunes, campus lockers, and fashions of late 90s Daly City, I mean Fogtown.

LUMPIA is Patricio Ginelsa’s 2003 directorial debut, the ultimate home movie he and his high school friends shot with a family camcorder in the Bay Area. Taking part firsthand in the successful pre-social media theatrical hustling of The Debut inspired Ginelsa to screen his own superhero flick across the country. Shot from 1996 to 2003—through their adolescence in the late 90s—Ginelsa and his friends commit wholeheartedly to the film, the era, and what it felt like to be a Filipino teenager in America. With sight gags, jokes, and a karaoke scene featuring Joy Bisco, LUMPIA is Ginelsa’s pager message to Daly City: 143 (I LOVE YOU).

—Erwin Mendoza

Co-Presented by Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), Strawberry Scented Burnout, and Filmmaker Patricio Ginelsa.