Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Malaya Lolas: A Film About Surviving Filipina Comfort Women of WWII

On the morning of November 23, 1944, the Japanese Imperial Army bombed the barrio of Mapanique, Pampanga. By noon, most of the men and women were rounded up and brought to the local school house. There, the men were tortured and massacred in front of their wives, mothers, sisters and children. With their barrio and homes burned, the women were forced into a life of sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army; where they were raped repeatedly and subjected to a panoply of violence. Of the thousands of women forced into sexual slavery in the Philippines, only 173 of the surviving Filipina comfort women have come forward to date. Earlier this month, HR 121, a demand for Japan to apologize to the women victimized by military sexual slavery during World War II, was passed by Congress. Malaya Lolas (directed by Etang Macam) is the raw and truthful story portraying the struggle of these surviving lolas (now in their 70s and 80s) which questions whether an apology is enough to absolve Japan's military for imposing a legacy of violence onto the bodies of our grandmothers.


Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Doors open at 6:30pm
Filipino Community Center
35 San Juan Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94112
Light refreshments will be served, followed by an open discussion, and updates on the issue.
*this is a FREE event, but donations are kindly accepted!
to RSVP, please visit: http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/babaesf@gmail.com/malayalolas

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi. i am a student of Polytechnic University of the Philippines. and i had the chance to view this movie during a film show in our school (i think that was around last year). i just wanna ask who is the organization handling the malaya lolas? can i go to there place directly? coz, i will be conducting a research and i am thinking of using the malaya lolas as my subject for it.

Anonymous said...

hi. it's me again, the one who posted the first comment here. i really need to know the answers to my questions. i am in need of help for my research. please tell me. tnx. u can just post it here along with the comments i always visit your page.

Bbabae - San Francisco said...

hello,

we are not currently in touch with the malaya lolas, but work with Lila Pilipina - another group of former comfort women. Lila Pilipina's main contact is the executive director Ritchelda Extremadura, and her contact # is 0915-5379579. hope this helps!