'The Debut' filmmakers try to diversify Hollywood

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

After a decade in the making, cowriters Gene Cajayon, left, and John Castro are proud to see their film on the Filipino American experience, "the Debut," hit theaters. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser 'the Debut' A film by Gene Cajayon Opens Friday at the Ward Stadium 16, Signature Pearl Highlands, Kapolei 16 and Ko'olau Stadium 1

The movie originally premiered in Hawai'i at the 2000 Hawai'i International Film Festival, where it won the Blockbuster Audience Award Film Festival here (beating out Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") and where film critic Roger Ebert first saw it and enthusiastically gave it a thumbs up.

With a staff of six, Orange County, Calif.-based Cajayon has put his personal spin on getting the word out to Asian Americans and all other interested filmgoers about "the Debut."

His modus operandi is to literally hit the streets, the open markets, Sunset on the Beach events, flea markets, malls, even bus stops, to hand out fliers about the modest but relevant movie.

It's hype on the cheap, but it's proven to be effective.

"Overall, we do have a financial goal," he said. "We can't afford to lose money, so our goal is to break even, or make a little. If we break even, we get to go to the next city, because we'll have some money to launch the film in a similar manner in another market. I hope to bring the movie to the Neighbor Islands, too, but of course, you never really know how you'll do when you're up against formidable competition."

The coming-of-age film, featuring Dante Basco, Eddie Garcia, Tirso Cruz III and Gina Alajar, chronicles the life of Ben Mercardo (Basco), a high school senior who has successfully assimilated into life as a typical American teenager by rejecting his Filipino heritage. This creates a rift in his family (Cruz plays his mother, Alajar his mother), who have struggled to give a decent life to the family while retaining their Filipino roots and identity.

The familial friction threatens an 18th birthday party for Ben's sister, Rose (Bernadette Balagtas) and the celebration evolves into a cultural stew of traditional values vs. urban intrusions that challenge Ben's sense of misplaced identity. The turmoil impacts on Ben's grandfather (Cruz) and the teen finds a comforting shoulder in Annabelle (Joy Bisco), Rose's best friend.

When Ebert called "the Debut" "great," noting that it is one of the first films about Filipino Americans, the review energized Cajayon's promotion and helped heighten national awareness of this little gem.

His island bookings will be open-end. "But we have to out-gross the Hollywood biggies by 20 percent to earn the right to stay," Cajayon said. "If I tie with the giants, I go; they'll drop me. As an indie, I'm held to a higher bar than the typical Hollywood film. But I will stay as long as Honolulu wants me. At least four weeks, hopefully longer. Besides three months in San Francisco, we were two months in Los Angeles, two months in Chicago, six weeks in San Diego. We'll end our tour later this fall in New York — that's the real challenge, to bring this grass-roots concept to the big city."

Like David, he's facing a parade of summertime Goliaths. Lucas' "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" and "Spider-Man" are still drawing throngs; hot stuff like "Men in Black II," "Lilo & Stitch" and "Austin Powers' Goldmember" are expected to add sizzle to the summer box office in the weeks ahead.

But Cajayon is not intimidated. "The personal marketing technique fits in nicely with our little film," he said. "It is, after all, a movie about the Filipino community, and when you see an Asian film represented at the multiplex, not at an art house, going head to head with the big films, you have to stop and wonder."

Cowritten by John Castro and a decade in the making, "the Debut" cost $1 million to produce. Cajayon maxed out on his credit cards. He filed for bankruptcy. His parents thought he was loco, pursuing an impossible dream. Even actors abandoned the project at one point.

But he persevered, seeking and getting some grants to complete filming.

Now his in-your-face, unconventional blitz is getting notice and attracting audiences.

"The film fills a void and gives Asian Americans a voice," he said. "I grew up in a society and in a world where you never saw (positive) images of Asians. What you did see was one-dimensional stereotypes. Yet you shape your identity by what you see in mass culture, like movies or TV, so for many younger Asian Americans, there are few role models.

"Very few people have the guts to do a film project like ours," he said. "The market's loaded with white American stories and even African Americans have seen their images and lifestyles on screen. Now, it's time for us."

The reception for another Filipino-themed feature, "American Adobo," signals that interest out there. "'Adobo' was a barometer, but we were coming to Honolulu anyway," Cajayon said. "The timing of our commercial release in Honolulu coincides with the opening of the Filipino Community Center (in Waipahu)."

"Gene is this wonderful Filipino American kid who has taken his personal life experience and translated into a film that is being warmly received by the Asian community," said Barbara Pleadwell, Cajayon's island publicist, of Hastings & Pleadwell. "He's so good at promotion, talking to the right people, going to where the crowds are, he's a fascinating film figure," Pleadwell said. "He doesn't need us."

Admittedly, it's a daunting task to launch a film without a marquee name, especially one dealing with minorities.

"People like our film, but we've been turned down systematically," Cajayon said. "If there is no big-name Caucasian face to put on a poster, you've got an uphill battle. But we've proven the naysayers wrong. The film has grossed $1 million at the box office and we've sold $500,000 in merchandise — feats that Hollywood indie films would salivate to gross."

Diversity can be profitable, Cajayon said. "It is not just a catch phrase. The NAACP has been ticked off that there are not enough black faces on TV, but there are few people of color on TV, period. And that's reality; some things don't change. You can pay lip service to the concept of diversity, but very little is done. We want to show that in the long haul, Hollywood needs to be diverse to involve all people of color."

Cajayon is multiracial, actually.

"My dad's Filipino, my mom's Vietnamese and French. That makes me a mutt. I have had equal doses of Vietnamese and Filipino cultures, but most of my friends are Filipino. I cowrote the screenplay with a sense of my own reawakening, a story about a man of color in America.

"I relate to the Filipino character in the story, but it is not an autobiography," Cajayon said. "And I am not denying my Vietnamese culture. My cowriter (John Castro) grew up in Sante Fe, in an suburban community. Our story about misplaced identity and friendship works (in the realm of their Filipino heritage)."

Cajayon enlisted Lisa Onodera to help produce the film because of his respect for her efforts on the Hawai'i-filmed "Picture Bride" independent movie.

To augment box office receipts and maintain a cash flow, Cajayon and his coterie sell T-shirts, soundtrack CDs and posters to a widening audience eager to find something they can relate to. "It's common for people to come walking out of the theater with tears in their eyes," he said. "Finally, there's something that touches a nerve."

The film was launched in March 2000 in San Francisco, where it played in eight theaters over three months. It also has made the rounds, of a dozen markets, including Guam, Sacramento and Stockton; Seattle is next up, after Hawai'i.

"It's not about making money, and bless my folks. They've invested in my work, because they felt bad their son was working so hard. I really think they invested out of guilt," Cajayon said.