Award-winning filmmaker Greg Pak (ROBOT STORIES, AAIFF05) leads Asian American International Film Festival's annual WORK IN PROGRESS program guiding filmmakers through the process of molding an unfinished work into the final cut. This year, Pak will be leading a workshop featuring GIVE UP TOMORROW by directing team Marty Syjuco and Michael Collins (both TAA '08 Alums).

On a stormy night in July 1997, two young girls waiting for a ride at a shopping mall disappear without a trace... Simultaneously a murder-mystery and an exposé of endemic corruption in the post-Marcos Philippines, GIVE UP TOMORROW centers on the trial of Paco Larrañaga, a young Mestizo (of Spanish descent) accused of killing two Chinese-Filipino sisters on the island of Cebu. Capturing how a rapacious media circus stoked ethnic and class hatred to prejudice public perception, the film reveals the extraordinary judicial violations that resulted in Paco's death sentence. Secret filming from Paco’s cell exposes the appalling conditions of Filipino prisons, where thousands like him languish without fair trial. This story is intensely personal with far-reaching global implications: Paco's case was eventually championed by international human rights groups, including the UN; their efforts eventually led to the abolishment of capital punishment in the Philippines, saving hundreds of inmates whose possible innocence may have been disregarded by flawed judicial and social systems.

This Work In Progress is organized as part of the Media Coalition For Artists of Color Networking Salon. Tribeca All Access will host a reception following this event. 

Work-in Progress:

Wednesday, July 16th