Thursday 27 July 2017 8:30pm
Asia Society Museum
725 Park Avenue, NYC
Inwood filmmaker Michael Manese’s short film “The Pleasure of Being Served” about an undocumented Filipina worker surviving in the big city to screen at the 2017 Asian American International Film Festival. This 40th edition is presented by Asian Cinevision.
The Angle:
Anxious about undocumented immigrants in the age of Trump? Come see Michael Manese’s “The Pleasure of Being Served” at the 2017 Asian American International Film Festival in New York City. The short film has a deceptively simple story filled with archetypes and symbolism that touches upon topics such as Sex, Race, White Privilege, Misogyny, Work Ethic, Morality, the Immigrant Experience, and Friendship.
The short film is being scripted as a feature length screenplay titled “America Already is Great.”
Synopsis
ROSA, an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines is a single mother trying to save enough money to bring her young son Richard in to the U.S. She works for HUDSON, a rich, young American as a domestic worker. Part of her job is to juggle logistics between his two girlfriends LYNN, a fellow Filipina, and JEN an American who don’t know about each other and visit him on alternating weekends. Having befriended the girls, Rosa becomes morally conflicted and must soon choose between enabling Hudson with his womanizing or accept the generous pay he offers, money that she desperately needs.