Padayon

Padayon (bisaya for “carry on”) is a short film written by Alyssa Medel. After a young immigrant father loses his job amidst an unforgiving recession, he refuses to return home to face his responsibilities and the reality of sacrificing his musical dreams.

THE CAMPAIGN

Padayon means to carry on. Infused with classical Filipino music, magical realism, and hope - the film is a love letter to immigrant parents and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. 

To make this film a reality, we are crowdfunding $20,000. We have set an ambitious goal as we believe the most important part of filmmaking is not just telling the story well, but valuing the people involved and ensuring we are able to offer koha for their time and efforts. It takes a village to make a film, and short film budgets are always tight. Your support will cover the filming, editing, original music, festival entry fees, distribution planning and every person who make it possible along the way. 

Padayon is written and directed by Alyssa Medel (Mekeni, Three Dots), produced by Rebecca Tang and executive produced by Michelle Ang (Nai, Kāinga). Also attached are Daryl Wong as DOP and Joey Siasoco as sound king.

BACKGROUND - FROM ALYSSA

“This short is inspired by my family’s experiences during the Great Recession 2007-2009. Retrospectively, I unpacked my memories as a child observing my parents’ cracking under the pressures of the financial crisis, affecting both them and our families back home (in the Philippines) whilst raising me and my two brothers on their own. My father worked night shifts for the majority of his life as an immigrant, whilst my mother worked long hours during the week and night shifts on weekends. After experiencing the physical and mental strain of working night shoots, I began to grasp a fraction of what my parents’ had gone through sustaining that for over 10 years - on top of not being able to get adequate sleep and rest during the day. 

The film takes a turning point I clearly remember, when my parents asked themselves - is this all even worth it? I wanted to explore that introspection in the capsule of a key event. It’s also a love letter to Auckland’s night life - the life it takes on when everyone else is asleep, where the roads are being fixed, the streets being swept, offices being cleaned, hospitals being run, etc.

As with all my work, this is for my Papa and Mama.”

WHY SUPPORT THIS STORY?

This story captures themes of family, isolation and the immigrant experience. While the story itself comes from a very personal part of Alyssa’s childhood, children of first generation immigrants will resonate with this idea of sacrifice our parents made for us. Now that a lot of us are closer to the age when our parents emigrated, we have a whole new understanding of how young they really were and how trying it must have been uprooting their entire lives with the added weight of supporting a family.  

The film serves as an opportunity to bring people together in a time of uncertainty. A key mission behind the project is to make sure it reaches its intended audience, by working with migrant communities for live distribution upon its completion. Our aim is to tour the film with live music and present it at community-organised screenings across Aotearoa. 

This will also help us give all you generous crowdfunding donors in Aotearoa, who will make this film possible, an opportunity to see the film. 

Arohanui,

Alyssa and Rebecca x