Nowhere Near

A poetic essay film depicting an undocumented immigrant's disillusionment in the US, prompting a return to an estranged homeland. The narrative unravels a family curse, tracing back through post-9/11 America, the US occupation of the Philippines, and the Spanish empire's spiritual conquest. The film is a diary exploring migration causes, though deviating from its expected course.  

'"How does an undocumented documentary filmmaker document themself?" This question has become an endless project of observing and representing myself and family waiting for sensible immigration reform in the United States. As time passed, I watched the disintegration of our American dreams. From August 1993 to 2019 we were held hostage by the systemic and psychological borders that trapped us in a perpetual post 9/11 era. And then, I left…and flew 7000 miles from LA to Manila, leaving everything behind. Nowhere Near is a poetic memoir through the lens of an exile returning to an estranged homeland. The film begins with an investigation into my family curse. A curse that followed us for generations, rooted in the soil of my grandma's coastal province, where my ancestors once ruled the land they inherited from Spanish colonisers. It is a land still bearing the remnants of colonial violence, first from Spain then America then our own onto each other.  

'My grandma likes to tell the story of MacArthur and the US troops landing Her local beach. She brags, that just down the front steps of her ancestral home. The American encampment stretched as far as her eyes could see. There was a big tent that functioned as a ballroom and bar, it was carpeted and there was a jazz symphony orchestra, is how she describes it. Her older sisters and cousins would wander there to go dancing. Even today there is a rotting concrete slab on that plot of land that the Americans left behind.  

'This film is about looking for that plot of land for answers it might still contain. Look for the concrete slab she says'. - Miko REVEREZA