Filipino Community Village mural documentary film garners awards

Filipino Community Village, a HumanGood affordable housing community in Seattle, WA, includes a mural developed by the Filipino American artist Eliseo Art Silva. The mural embodies the collective aspirations of many generations of Filipino immigrants and their descendants to be accepted and included as equals in America.

Roberto San Luis (HumanGood's art director) and Loren A. Roberts (marketing project specialist for HumanGood) co-directed and produced a film which follows Eliseo and his team as they developed and painted this gorgeous gift to the city of Seattle.

The film is now an "official selection" in almost two dozen film festivals worldwide, winning the audience award for best cinematography at the Seattle Film Summit in September 2022 and Best Documentary Short at the recent Paris Film Awards. The film will be shown at both the Seattle Film Festival and the San Diego Filipino Film Festival in October 2022, with additional hoped-for screenings and festivals throughout the remainder of 2022 and early 2023.

Learn more about the film below.

What is the movie about?

Eliseo Art Silva, who co-designed the Historic Filipinotown Eastern Gateway arch in Los Angeles and has been credited for putting Los Angeles' Filipinotown on the map with his “Gintong Kasaysayan” mural, travels to Seattle to research and develop a new piece of art that links Filipino and Filipino-American history together in a four-panel mural. The mural site is on the wall of the newly-built Filipino Community Village, a HumanGood and Filipino Community of Seattle affordable housing community, developed by Beacon and managed by HumanGood. The film follows the painting of the mural, and speaks with student interns, community members who brought Eliseo to the Pacific Northwest, and the artist himself about the mural, the artistic process, and hopes for connecting cultures together through art.

What is HumanGood’s connection to the mural artist?

Roberto San Luis, HumanGood’s art director, has known Eliseo Art Silva, the mural artist, for almost 30 years, through his work with Los Angeles-based community organizations FilAm Arts and Search to Involve Pilipino Americans. Roberto and Eliseo worked on several arts festivals together and advocated for Filipino and Filipino American art in Los Angeles. When Roberto heard that Eliseo was chosen to create the mural at Filipino Community Village, he reached out to Eliseo to help paint the mural. This spawned the idea to document the development of the mural as a way of showing HumanGood’s commitment to its partnership with The Filipino Community of Seattle, and the importance of connecting our housing to the communities our partners represent.

How did HumanGood participate in the making of the film?

HumanGood and Hearken Creative (Loren Roberts' production company) are credited as the producing companies for the documentary. Roberto and Loren were able to travel to the FCV construction site multiple times while in Seattle supporting HumanGood marketing, communications, and Affordable Housing projects. Roberto was even able to help with painting the mural in 2021.

How does the documentary align with HumanGood's values?

The documentary highlights HG's commitment to inclusion and representation by observing HG's platforming of developments and artistic projects from (and for) underrepresented communities. The documentary shows the courage necessary to complete such a monumental task, and potentially-global impact that the Filipino Community Village mural may have. There is passion evident throughout the documentary. 

How does the mural represent HumanGood?

HumanGood partners with community-based organizations in providing affordable housing across the U.S. These partnerships are an important way we achieve our mission of inspiring the best lives for our residents. Our partnership with The Filipino Community of Seattle included designating space for a mural when developing the Filipino Community Village. The partnership understood the impact of art in achieving a sense of community and place.

Where is the documentary being shown?

The film is publicly available on both YouTube and Vimeo.

How does this film help HumanGood?

The filmmakers' hope is that goodwill and name recognition for HumanGood will be generated as new audiences see the life-affirming, powerful partnerships forged through art and inclusion in HumanGood communities.