First off, THANK YOU to everyone who supported our last two campaigns AND on set! We enjoyed every moment with you all as Background actors, as Craft Services, as welcoming hosts in your homes, businesses, and the list goes on and on. This film has truly been a collective effort and we all wish we could go back and be together again (if you can't already tell from our pitch video). And now, we are close to the finish line and hope that we can include more people in our journey to cross that line!

So yes, one more crowdfunding campaign for:

That's right! We're on the final phase of filmmaking: Post-Production!  

This time, we have the support of a huge community we built in the past two years, plus the dedicated cast and crew who know how much the impact Nanay Ko can have. For the next generation of Asians and Asian-Americans, to have a movie experience where they see themselves dealing with situations they’re familiar with, and to have that projected on the screen to song and dance, is going to be tremendous.  It’s an experience that previous generations haven’t had the opportunity to experience, so the idea of providing it to all generations feels extraordinary.

Nanay Ko is an independent dramedy musical inspired by our director's family and community in her hometown of Maryland. The film revolves around a girl named Christine, who grew up under a traditional, conservative household.  Her parents immigrated from the Philippines to build a good life for their family in America.  That life included Christine taking over the family’s restaurant business.  But Christine had a bigger dream than what her family intended.  She follows her dream in LA and lands her big break on a show when her father suddenly passes away.  Upon her return to Maryland, Christine not only has to reconcile her strained relationship with her mother, but she has to prevent her family’s restaurant from eviction.  Christine’s homecoming becomes a crossroad in her life.  Should she put her dream on hold to be there for her family?  Or can she find a way to balance both her immigrant parents’ American dream with her own?  

“The film is made in the editing room.“ - Philip Seymour Hoffman 

The goal of this third leg of crowdfunding is to complete the film and submit it to film festivals for distribution and most importantly - sharing the film with the world! To make this happen, we need to raise at least $30,000 for the absolute necessary steps in post (details in our wishlist tab!). By supporting our project, you are supporting the many first-time feature artists and technicians who have dedicated their talent to gather what we filmed and mold it into a 90+ minute feature length film that will entertain and inspire generations. 

Like principal photography, post-production involves a combination of the technical and the creative. These include editing, sound editing, color correction, the composition of a musical score and sound & visual effects, if necessary. This part of filmmaking is known as the invisible artform and where most of the magic happens! Performances are shaped, visuals are enhanced by sound and music, problems are solved.  If it's done well, then the team did a GREAT job - which is where we want to be!

Filipinos are notorious for being late to parties.  For the Asian-American film world, the party started last year with the monstrous box office success and acclaim for Crazy Rich Asians, a Hollywood movie written by, directed by and starring Asian-Americans.  The time for movies penned, helmed and starring Asian-Americans is NOW. We don’t want to be late to this party. With Nanay Ko, we’re only telling a fraction of the Asian-American stories still left to be told.  What Crazy Rich Asians proved is that the audience has an appetite for our stories.  We want to continue to feed that appetite in the most satisfying way we know how…with the musical. 

The genre of the musical is having its own resurgence.  Musicals are #trending.  We want to be #trending, but we also want to #trailblaze for Asian-American musicals mainly because we know we have the talent to do so.  We proved so last fall by working with all of the incredible cast that not only proved Filipinos can SAAANNNG, but can act too! Our families and family friends knew how innately talented we were with our voices when we were younger.  How long is it still going to be for everyone else to find out?

We hope not much longer.

We're excited to have our lead cast join us in crowdfunding this time around! Some of whom we've looked up to for decades. Each week, they will be taking over the campaign and offering special incentives during their week!

Continuing from our last campaign, From the Heart Productions remains a fiscal sponsor to our film.  We are so honored to have a prestigious non-profit organization who fully supports our story and the filmmakers behind it.  Did taxes put a hole in your pocket this year? Any pledge you make during this campaign is tax deductible!

Incentives for most pledges will include an official Nanay Ko t-shirt designed by Nostalgink (boys and men) and Martirology (girls and women).  Nanay Ko t-shirts are only available at this time with a tax-deductible pledge to this campaign.   

Missed out on our journey? Check out our last two campaigns!

Nanay Ko Phase 1 - Nanay Ko Phase 2