Director Minerva Navasca’s newest film, Kamayan, strives for authenticity by recapturing elements of Filipino culture amidst a North American backdrop and its perceived norms.
"I try to really capture my voice in the particular project," Navasca said. "This ties into the shame I felt growing up in the Philippines, feeling as I immigrated, into my transition in Canadian culture, [and] just overcompensating because I never really fit in."
The film explores the traditional Filipino way of eating with hands during a meal called kamayan, a Tagalog dialect word that translates to "hand" in English.
