Manilatown is in the Heart – Time Travel with Al Robles is a motion picture produced, directed and edited by Curtis Choy under Chonk Moonhunter Productions. The film follows the life of San Francisco poet and activist Al Robles (February 16, 1930 – May 2, 2009) and Robles's status as one of the last survivors of the Manong generation. The film depicts the culmination of over 30 years of work by Robles in and around the Chinatown/Manilatown areas of California. The film incorporates the poetry of Al Robles, Lou Syquia and Janice Mirikitani, is a forty-seven minutes long and was released in 2008.
The director of the film, Curtis Choy, is a widely recognized film maker known for his work in documenting the Asian American community. His other works include Women Warriors, What's Wrong with Frank Chin, and The Fall of the I-Hotel; the latter is narrated by Al Robles, the subject of Manilatown is in the Heart.
In the film, Choy chronicles the wanderings and lyrical musings of Robles reflecting the bachelor society made up largely of Filipino migrant workers in the 1920's and the 1930's. The film depicts Robles as a “one-man social service agency” and as “one of Asian America's hidden gems.” It follows Robles across some three decades from one single-room hotel to another. The documentary focuses on the many personalities and community roles Robles undertook throughout his life. Specifically, the film recounts Robles's encounters with elderly veterans and the efforts he mounted for their benefit. In the film Robles serves as the medium with which the audience may interpret the stories and experiences of the Manong generation.
Through Robles the film “tells the manong's tales of isolation, struggle and merriment.” The film follows Robles through San Francisco's Chinatown and Manilatown, to the farm county of Watsonville and Delano all the while chronicling Robles efforts to represent the dispossessed and their struggles. The film itself focuses heavily on Robles's literary and musical, relying on Robles's performance to induct the viewers into the films subject matter. The films synopsis credits Robles's “mesmerizing performance and poetry readings” indicating that it is this which “grace much of the action” of the film.
The film has been screened at several film festivals including the 2009 DisOrient Film Festival and the 2009 Los Angeles Pacific Film Festival where it was a finalist for the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary.
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