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Fil-Am filmmaker Diane Paragas on making 'Yellow Rose,' one of the first Filipino-led movies to hit Hollywood
Los Angeles — Breaking into Hollywood is challenging. More so if you are BIPOC and a female.
“I never imagined I would be able to do this because it is hard to convince people to work in Hollywood especially if you look like this,” revealed Diane Paragas on Zoom.
Diane is the talented Filipino-American filmmaker behind the musical drama, “Yellow Rose.” She wrote and directed her debut feature presentation, which stars Eva Noblezada (as Rose Garcia), Lea Salonga (as Gail Garcia), Princess Punzalan (as Priscilla Garcia) and country western singer-songwriter Dale Watson as himself.
“Yellow Rose,” which Diane said has been in the works since 2004, follows Rose Garcia, an undocumented 17-year-old Filipina, who dreams of leaving her small town in Texas to pursue her country music dreams. Her plans are put on hold when her mother is taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Diane is also currently developing a feature documentary, "The Three Lives of David Wong," which was selected for Sundance Creative Producing Lab and won the CAAM Documentary for Social Change grant. It is a feature documentary about a wrongly convicted, undocumented Chinese man facing a life sentence for crime he did not commit and his 20-year fight for justice.
Below are excerpts of our conversation with her:
Why is this a passion project for you?
Like a lot of Filipinos, I grew up in a small Texas town. I didn’t see any Asians or Filipinos at that time.
I always thought I would be a filmmaker and I knew I would like to tell the story of a Filipino woman. I wrote this story 16 years ago. I wrote this movie for a younger version of myself.
The movie tells the story unique to my upbringing. Since I grew up in Texas, I used music as an outlet. I never imagined I would be able to do this because it is hard to convince people to work in Hollywood especially if you look like this.
People always tell you no you can’t play in this room. No, you can’t do your story. But I always came back to it. I was always checking on it: Is this the right time? Then Asian films like "Crazy Rich Asians," "Searching," "Farewell," and "Parasite" came along and legitimized it. That Asian films can be commercially and critically successful.
So, it was in this environment that we got funded. We got a lot of funding from a lot of Filipinos. Everyone who gave money was a Filipino.
What is the relevance of this film during these times especially for immigrants, including Filipino immigrants?
The topic of immigration comes up especially with the Princess Punzalan character, or the mother being arrested during an immigration check and the mother and daughter become separated.
Then when President Trump got elected there was a crackdown on immigration and we talked a lot about this — that Princess had to go through the system. And this is also a film about a woman (Rose) finding a home and finding her voice as an artist.
It is relevant because never in my time was an anti-immigrant sentiment strong and then there was this increase of anti-Asian hate crimes. So, there was this new shot of the film once again and we are weeks away from a very important election. So, this is coming out at the right time. The only down time is the pandemic. But I am still grateful that I was able to do this film and with Sony Pictures helping out which is great.
Why is this film a little personal for you especially since Eva Noblezada’s character is a Filipino-American who grew up in Texas just like you?
Back to the thing of wanting to represent. I feel seen and that rarely happens. It is a good thing and a sad thing that we are the first Filipino-American movie that a Hollywood studio gave a theatrical release.
Filipinos have been in the U.S. since 1857 and we are the third largest ethnic group here. Where are our stories? We should be doing our Hollywood stories following in the line of "Crazy Rich Asians," "Farewell," "Searching," and "Parasite."
Yesterday, we were getting our reviews in and they were all very positive and there has been a very warm reception from all the major publications from LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Times and other big papers. Everybody embraced the film and it was wonderful.
You are ethnic, colored, a woman, Filipina. What were the challenges you encountered as a Filipina filmmaker trying to make it in Hollywood and how did you hurdle them?
I just kept on directing and that is also the advice I want to give to young filmmakers since rejection is part of Hollywood. I got it also.
But you have to stay on course and if there is value in your story, someone will back you up and someone will support you. You have to constantly advocate for yourself. It is a Filipino thing to just do it ourselves. One thing I love about Filipinos is we just do it. If nobody does it, we do it. Filipinos are survivors. Like the Yellow Rose. Rose was told no but she kept at it. It is heartening that we are beginning to start our own Hollywood club.
There are some great Filipino filmmakers out there like Isabel Sandoval, Ramona Diaz, H.P. Mendoza among others. We have friends and allies who are part of our community. It is a white Hollywood out there and they have had their own club forever. It is good that we are supporting each other. We have our own support system and somehow it is good we are creating our own club.
This is also a casting coup for you. Please talk of the following cast members: Eva Noblezada, Lea Salonga, Princess Punzalan and Dale Watson (the American/Texan country Western singer).
Yes, this is a dream cast indeed. The first one that we cast was Princess Punzalan for the short that we did first. We knew we were going to do a feature film later but we still had to raise money. We met up with Princess and she read the script and agreed. There were no scenes with the mother in the feature but we added her later because Princess is incredible.
The next one we hired was Dale who was also cast in the short first. He is not just an actor here but he is also the main songwriter of the film and also a producer. We shot in his house and he is an important part of the mix.
Then we wanted Eva for the feature. I didn’t want to see her musical play and not hire her. But then it was coming to an end so I sent the script to her and she didn’t know that I was watching the play. Then I went to see Miss Saigon and met her and had dinner with her. I didn’t even tell my producers that I was having that meeting with her. I just knew that she was the one. So, when she accepted, I didn’t even have to wait to shoot her.
Shortly, I met with Lea Salonga who read the script and knew how important the film was. At least, that was what she told me. She accepted even though she has not been in a movie for the past 24 years. She knew she was going to be part of something to be a milestone. I met Lea when we she was in New York doing “Once on This Island.” We didn’t have distribution yet.
But the last part was Sony Pictures who bought our film and told us they wanted to support it. Just going through those gates, going under the rainbow arc in the studio, meeting with them and telling me they are going to buy our film was memorable. I will never forget that moment.
Talk about the song “Square Peg” that Eva sang. Is this an original song for the movie? Please talk about its message. The lyrics go “I never fit in/I never couldn’t win.”
All the music in the film we all wrote as part of our production. Music will generate from us. Dale and I wrote for the short and he is helping me in the feature as well. Filipino-American singer Thia Megia, who was a contestant on the 10th season of American Idol and also starred as Haley Chen on Days of Our Lives and was nominated on the 47th Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Young Performer in a Drama Series, sang our song “Square Peg” originally. Dale wrote with his band and produced it in a studio. Then for the feature film, Eva re-recorded the song with her vocals and it was incredible. It is the song which we thought what Rose, Eva’s character, would be writing at that time in her life.
Are you a country music lover as well? What kind of music do you listen to?
I am not a Johnny Cash or Willy Nelson fan when I was young. I was more like a British punk who had mohawk hair, and a dog collar on my neck. I was more a punk rocker.
But music was my outlet. I love Texas deeply and so I learned more of country music while doing research for the film. The kind of stuff that I listened to when I was younger was more punk. But later I became a country music fan.
A throwback to the old style of country music was my favorite which is Dale’s music genre and what you hear in the film. Even if you don’t like country music, I am certain you will like the songs in the film. They are similar to the Filipino ballads. They are beautiful and the kind of music Filipinos will like. They almost sound like they are ballads. I hope people will give them a chance. And our soundtrack just dropped today on iTunes and Spotify. My brother just texted me that they work and you can buy them already on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and other outlets. So, buy them and listen to them.
You grew up in Lubbock, Texas which is the birthplace of Buddy Holly. Talk about having Texas as a character in your film.
I went to the high school of Buddy Holly. I was a fan of his. I found out what his locker was – “That is the Buddy Holly locker!” Texas is a big part of my upbringing. I spent my childhood there and went to college there at the University of Texas at Austin. Then I went to New York. So, I have a romantic memory of Texas. I remember it in a nostalgic way. I feel like the movie is a love letter to what my romantic imagination of Texas is. Peter Debruge of Variety magazine wrote that “the color palette of the sky of Texas in the film” showed that I really know Texas well. Because one of the unique things in Texas are the beauty of its skies and sunsets.
“Yellow Rose” was the nickname given by the classmates of Rosario Garcia (Eva’s character) to her because of her Asian heritage which is kind of a racist pun. Growing up, have you ever experienced the same thing?
For sure. Even while we were shooting the film, we went to a restaurant and somebody said, “Let us let the yellow people in first” and that was just a couple of years ago! Yes, growing up I had my friend supporters but there was a lot of blatant racism going on. One time, somebody drew an egg roll on the side of my van and wrote “egg roll movie.” So, I drove around town and people were laughing at me. I also got a lot of queries like “Are you Chinese?” or “Are you Mexican?” I get that a lot. I really didn’t think much about it. I just thought people were like that. Then I went to college and I realized that they were being racist.
This is also a film about kindness which we also need during these days.
Somebody said that it is a “white savior” movie (The term white savior, sometimes combined with savior complex to write white savior complex, refers to a white person who provides help to non-white people in a self-serving manner.) I take offense to that. I show allies and kindness of people. Remember, most of Rose’s world is white. That was how my world was too growing up. That is why I said it is in this environment that there are more subversive going against their ideologies and professions and putting themselves in danger. We don’t see it. Only division. The bigger troop is the redneck. Some people defend it. I got that criticism.
Who were the Filipino filmmakers who influenced you?
Growing up, the only Filipino filmmaker who influenced me was Lino Brocka who is a legend. But when I went to college, I took up Film Studies and the most who influenced me were Asian filmmakers like Ang Lee. Not only do I respond to his films but Yellow Rose has similarities to his work like the Taiwanese-American films he has done. They are agnostic and tackling different stories and genres. I will do next a couple of films like that and they are already lined up.
What do you think audiences will get after watching the movie?
I hope they see us and our Filipino stories. I hope they see the film and they could not get it out of their heads. I hope they will be moved and touched. I hope they see themselves. I do think there is something in the film for everyone. It is a musical. It is a western. It is a coming-of-age. It is for everyone. I hope they give it a chance and put politics outside the door. It is a young woman finding her voice.
What are your next projects after this?
I am writing a film on “Lizards: A Pop Opera” which is about a young girl, Matilda, a misunderstood dark-skinned teenager from a wealthy family, who unlocks a secret world of lizards during the Japanese occupation of Manila during World War II. It follows her journey as an underground guerilla. It is a magical world of lizards from her childhood. It is a very ambitious project. I am deeply passionate about it. It is a bigger budget than Yellow Rose. And it is a musical. — LA, GMA News
