Breadfruit & Open Spaces
Explore the journey of a group of Pacific Islander immigrants from the Federated States of Micronesia who are now living on Guam.
- Filmmaker(s)
- Lola Quan Bautista
- Category
- Short Film
- Subject Matter
- Family, Food, Environment & Sustainability
- Featured In
- 2013 Hawaii International Film Festival
- Region
- Micronesia
- Length
- 30 Minutes
- Year
- 2013
- Website
- breadfruitopenspaces.com
Breadfruit & Open Spaces explores the journey of a group of Pacific Islander immigrants from the Federated States of Micronesia who are now living on Guam. This half-hour documentary profiles their struggle to hold their ground and find a voice on a new island, while maintaining ties to their families on their home island of Chuuk. The film is shot in an intimate, backyard style and gives a rare look into the personal lives of Pacific Islander immigrants who work and attend school on Guam and enjoy living in open spaces where families gather and traditional foods are grown.
These new migrants are living a dream come true. They moved to Guam determined to find work and to send their children to “American” schools, and they have worked hard to purchase land where they can build homes and plant crops for their families. Because of this, they are devastated when the Guam Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) threatens to evict them. With their new livelihood at stake, the residents organize and fight back.
Dr. Lola Quan Bautista is an associate professor at the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her research examines the movement of Pacific peoples and its influence on culture and, in particular, the experiences of Micronesian women living in more urban spaces. She is indigenous to Guam and for the past seven years has worked with the community featured in the film, the residents of the Gill-Baza subdivision.
Part of the Local, USA series, and available to stream online at The WORLD Channel website.
Produced in partnership with WTTW in Chicago, Local, USA is a half-hour, 13-week series that features fascinating stories of diverse people, culled from public television stations and independent producers from across the country, and curated around a single theme for each program.
Local, USA is a co-production of WTTW and WORLD Channel.
As a filmmaker, researcher and author, as well as a longtime neighbor living on her family’s nearby ranch, Lola Quan Bautista provides a big picture of life on Guam for the new migrants and contextualizes the struggles and experiences of her Pacific Islander neighbors. In addition to the film, Bautista and her team are creating a website and educational curriculum for both colleges and high schools to accompany the film, and they have plans to conduct outreach programs at schools throughout the Pacific and in places in the United States where many Micronesians now live.
Breadfruit and Open Spaces premiered in October 2012 at the Guam International Film Festival and won the award for “Best Documentary Short.”
Hawaiʻi Premiere at 2013 Hawaii International Film Festival
