THIS FILIPINO AMERICAN LIFE -- In this episode, we spoke with filmmaker and Professor Celine Parreñas Shimizu about her upcoming film “The Celine Archive.” The documentary film explores the murder of Celine Navarro, its impact on Navarro’s descendants and its importance in Filipino American history and the history of race and gender in the United States.
Shimizu is professor at San Francisco State University and director of its School of Cinema.
“In finding Celine Navarro’s name in the archive, it was really overwhelming and powerful to see that she had been killed, you know?” Shimizu said. “It wasn’t like a story that was equal to these romantic images of powerful [Filipino] men, who were also racially victimized [and] live segregated by societies. She was kidnaped by her community three times during that time.”