Take Up Space: Pilipinas/os at the Movie Theater

Image by Al_HikesAZ

It's finals week. It's almost midnight and I'm about to have the longest night of studying. I will probably ask myself a few times if it's worth staying up, I'll most likely contemplate "winging it" and I'll come close to convincing myself that I can sleep at some later date in life. I just finished a 16-page paper on Pinay/Pinoy after-school spaces. It's okay if I'm about to be up from now until the time of my final--I've been through worse in my academic career. Speaking of which, I believe that I've been lucky enough to find ways to write about and study things I'm actually interested in. I've found ways to make school work for me, but now I'm really trying to figure out what school and after-school settings mean. 

I've always had a strange but interesting fascination with space. Like, physical, geographic, created and imagined space. Especially after-school when people were down and willing to kick it because there was no way that the amount of responsibility that held us down throughout the week could fade us on a Friday.

The movie theater at the Great Mall in Milpitas, California (or at Union Landing in Union City, CA) was the place to be on Friday afternoons when school was done for the week. It was here that Pilipina/o youth, identifiable in Pinoy or Pinay cliques, became visible. These days, it never really is just the movie theater, but the mall. There, my friends and I would walk around for hours on end to catch up with folks from other schools, try on things we couldn't afford but really wanted, and go to see people or be seen. If it wasn't the mall, then we were probably making plans to hit up the photo studio (Excel, Perfect, or other studios, anyone?) to once again--make our marks and be seen. And then if we really had nothing to do, we'd be at someone else's house. All of this took place only if we didn't have any other extracurricular activities going for us. 

On a recent trip to the movie theater on a Friday afternoon at a different theater in San Diego, California, my preoccupation with space (coupled with an epiphany about how I've aged) led me to feel comfortable yet uncomfortable at the same time. When my own group of friends and I sat down at the large water fountain that sits to the right of the theater, we noticed that we were "checked out" by other youth. Getting "checked out" usually brings up bouts of tense feelings and false confidence for me - I don't know how to feel about others' eyes fixated on part of my body or outfit. I remember putting on that lens very well: adults and older people in the crowd were not figures to focus on - it was (and still is) easy to overlook them and find people that looked like me in terms of what they wore, what they had, how they talked or stood and who they were with. I saw myself in other people. I saw handshakes, backpacks, new kicks, baggy clothes, posturing, cliques, b-boys, skaters and what a friend called young faces with older bodies. This friend was alluding to the idea that these girls might try to look older or that they wanted to grow up faster to emulate a certain, perhaps more mature, kind of "cool" or alternate persona. There have been a lot of posts on BakitWhy about Filipino cinema and the film industry, and even though we're trying to be (represented) on screen, we're definitely there at the movie theaters. 

The allure of space only comes with more questions. Why is/was it so important to "see" people? Where did everyone go on a Friday afternoon as a high school student?What is so enticing and compelling about being away from home, our parents, our teachers and school for a short amount of time? What does it mean for Pilipinas/os or Pilipina/o Americans to "take up space"? How is this different from the way other youth take up space?

I don't have answers, just sub-questions and a large research project that I'm undertaking. I'm hoping that my inquiring mind takes me places. Until I figure things out, reminisce with me.