Chalk this one up in the “Asian-themed indie movie I actually really want to see” category: Colma: The Musical, which is a musical… about Colma, California. Us Bay Area folk also affectionately know Colma as “the town by Daly City where it’s cold and there’s hella cemeteries.”
And that, in a nutshell, is what the musical is about. With two of the three leads being Filipino-American and an Asian-American Director/Producer, Colma: The Musical looks to be like a cross between Rent and one of those Pilipino Cultural Nights, except not about AIDS and totally better:
The website of the film also links to what they describe as “the best slash worst slash best again review ever,” in which the film is lambasted by a reporter from the Philippine News:
A puzzling scene was when Rodel (Mendoza) and Maribel (L.A. Renigen) casually mention being Filipino and yet none of that plays out in the film. There are no distinctly Filipino values expressed in the story so why mention it at all? The musical is clearly not about being Filipino American; it was just coincidentally written by a Filipino American.
Which, ironically, is the reason why I am all over this movie when it comes out in San Francisco on June 22nd.
