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APART of the Story: Island Dreams of an AfroFilipina

APART of the Story: Island Dreams of an AfroFilipina is a documentary by award-winning film Director Omilani Alarcon. With a blend of rhythmic world music, colorful animation, and film, Omilani shares her personal journey to locate her long lost family and to heal Ancestral wounds.

In a heartfelt multi-lingual presentation combining Tagalog, English and Spanish, audiences are taken on a journey through a musical and visual show that begins with the American-born artist dreaming of a “homeland in the islands”. She imagines what her family is like and how they may live. She even learns Tagalog language to be able to communicate with them. However, on her journey, she is confronted with obstacles and the nuances of her identity as an AfroFilipina. With a torn heart, she plunges into self-love.

A whim to search for her family during the pandemic ultimately leads her to a beautiful and unexpected turn. The film reveals the surprise, the heartbreak and the euphoria of healing ancestral wounds.

APART of the Story is filled with happiness, culture, and the inspiration to follow your heart, it will always lead you home as you follow the clues that are “A/Part of the Story.”

Longline: A whim to search for long-lost family during the pandemic ultimately leads to a beautiful and unexpected surprise.

  • Omilani Alarcon
    Director
    Latinegras
  • Omilani Alarcon
    Writer
  • Omilani Alarcon
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    44 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 15, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    6k; 2K
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Omilani Alarcon

OMILANI is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She graduated summa cum laude and upon graduation, immediately embarked upon a Fulbright Hays-Group Project Abroad in Nigeria. She completed a study at the University of Cambridge (UK) for her Masters thesis as well as returned to Africa and the Caribbean for further fieldwork. Ms. Alarcón is a visual and performing artist, poet, scholar and Founder of the Latinegras brand. She has over ten scholarly publications, 8 albums , and was in the top 7 GRAMMY Showcase Finalists. She is fluent in four languages other than English and has traveled and studied business, languages, and performing arts in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. Her documentary, "LATINEGRAS: The Journey of Self Love through an AfroLatina Lens" debuted in Seville, Spain and she is working on a Tagalog dedication to her Filipino Roots called UGAT FILIPINO (Filipino Roots).

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Director Statement

What does it feel like to be a fragment? In this film I delve into the difference between being a part from and apart of the bigger picture. Unexpectedly reconnecting the broken parts of me ultimately healed the fragment I did not know existed. Finding my roots made me feel whole, complete and no longer uprooted.