My article from the Filipino Journal
No Comment // Written on May 12, 2007 // Film, In the news, PhilippinesEric Mulvin: Director of American Adobo
By: Leo Catedral Aromin
Tempe, AZ – When Arizona State University’s Philippine American Student Association (ASU PASA) premiered the first annual Philipino night ‘Sino Tayo’ celebration, one of the many highlights of the event was a short film written and directed by one of PASA’s newest member, Eric Mulvin. A 22 year old Marketing Major, born and raised in Phoenix and Tempe, Mulvin wowed the audience with his film American Adobo. While most of the program featured the vocal and rhythmic talents of young Filipino-Americans, Eric Mulvin chose to delve into another important aspect of Filipino cultural identity.
With a cast mostly made up of PASA members, Mulvin wanted to illustrate the importance of family and heritage within the Filipino community. He muses that while everyone talks about how the United States is a melting pot where different cultures are brought together, many people begin loosing their cultural identity in the process.
“The message I’m trying to give in American Adobo is, don’t be afraid to learn about your culture. While it’s great that we are all one people here in the US, I think it’s just as important to know your history,” says Eric Mulvin.
The story of American Adobo revolved around a day in the life of J.J.P. played by Geoff Ibe, who has been entrusted by his mother, also hilariously played by Geoff Ibe, to cook the Filipino staple, adobo for his Lolo and Lola while she picks them up from the airport. Unabashedly unacquainted with much of his Filipino heritage, J.J.P. gripes about making adobo when he doesn’t even know how to spell it. However, with the help of his sister Lin Lin, played my Melissa Rue, he finds himself becoming more interested about the Filipino community. The quest to cook adobo is a catalyst for a cultural awakening, sparking a newfound respect for his heritage.
For Mulvin, who had created a few short films in his high school’s TV production class, the most difficult part was coming up with the theme and the plot yet eventually he drew the story from his own personal experiences and common thread of growing up Filipino-American.
Prior to joining PASA during the summer of 2006, Eric Mulvin admits that he had never been involved with the Filipino community. With a Filipino mother and an American father, his only connection with his Filipino heritage was visiting relatives in his mother’s side which only occurred four times in his life. He occasionally heard his mother speak Bisaya and at times listened to her stories about the Philippines but mostly found himself cut off from the other half of his cultural identity.
“I think my lack of Filipino culture when I was younger is what’s giving me my drive to learn about my culture and be involved in the Filipino community today,” Mulvin says.
He has been to the Philippines twice with his family, once when he was a baby and the last time seven years ago. When he visited on 2000, he was excited to finally meet his family for the first time even though he had no idea what to expect. Since they remained in Dumaguete City for the entirety of the trip, his memories are concentrated in the province.
“I really loved it there,” Mulvin recalls. “I remember a lot of the little things. Like the shoe place downtown was called Foot Lucker and not Foot Locker, how you return the coke bottles back when you’re done, how milk always comes form powder, and $100 American dollars can take a middle school student a long way.
Mulvin says that he has received an overwhelming amount of positive response on American Adobo. Aside from editing the raw footage into a coherent story and bringing together the music to match the emotions in each scene, his favorite part about the filmmaking is finally showing the final product and watching the reaction to his film.
At the heart of Adobo is a story that is clearly relatable to many young Filipino-Americans, finding humor in the shared experience of being Filipino. Non-Filipinos also enjoy the journey that J.J.P. undergoes in the film, commenting on the interesting cultural differences between the older and younger generation in their attitudes and language. Mulvin notes that everyone loves the Lolo and Lola characters played by Alfred Oyog and Kristine Reynante.
“I think what also makes it great is this kind of story could take place anywhere in the U.S. with a number of cultures. I was even joking with some of my Latino friends at work and told ‘we should make another version of this called American Enchilada!”
When he got an invitation from PASA though email last summer, Mulvin decided to try it out because it bothered him that he wasn’t as active in college as he had been in high school. He wasn’t looking to become too involved in the program but by August he was the photographer for the club and next semester he’s already planning to run for an office.
Mulvin advises students who want to become more involved in the Filipino community to join a Filipino or Asian organization in order to meet other Filipinos and to come out to cultural events like Aloha Festival, Philippine Independence Day, Sino Tayo, or FASA Fiesta where they can talk to the groups to see how one can get involved.
“When you start learning about your history then things will start to make more sense, like ‘oh that’s why my mom does that,’ or ‘that is why there is Spanish mixed in with our language’ or ‘that’s how pancit became a Filipino food’.”
For now, Eric Mulvin wants to focus on finishing school, getting a job at the local advertising agency, and marrying his fiancé Reachhane next year, however he doesn’t dismiss the possibility of making more films in the future. One day, he hopes to create a documentary about Filipino businesses and restaurants in the Valley and maybe even a spin-off for some of the characters in Amerian Adobo. In the meantime, he is looking to learn more about this Filipino heritage so he can craft better stories and themes in future films.
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