Filipino Fathers of Varnertown Indians

In a semi-rural, lakeside town in South Carolina, lives an intensely insular Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians that have families descended from World War 2 Filipino U.S. Navy veterans.

In the 1930s, a group of Filipino U.S. Navy cooks were stationed at a South Carolina shipyard. They found love, livelihood, and belonging with the women of the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians amidst the harsh Jim Crow era segregation laws.

Through decades and a history of intermarriages amongst other Filipino Varnertown families, the Wassamasaw Tribe remains a close-knit community and continues the traditions and practices of their Filipino forefathers. Their descendants share first hand accounts of stories of their Filipino ancestors and reflections on the profound and lasting impact of Filipino culture in their daily lives, through their food, religion, practices, and beliefs. With their Filipino Fathers long gone, the Filipino Varnertown families remain, for the most part, isolated from and unassociated with Filipinos and Filipino Americans outside of their Tribe. Their constant and steadfast loyalty is to the Wassamasaw Tribe.

Furthermore, there exists friction within the Tribe due to the privileges that interracial families had over their Native American cousins. The Wassamasaw discuss how they have navigated the various challenges they face while remaining loyal to each other. The film aims to foster a deeper empathy for the painful and beautiful ways mixed-heritage communities forge bonds to survive systemic erasure, offering a profound reflection on the universal languages of food, love, and survival.