AS part of National Heroes Day and in honor of those who simply didn’t give up during World War II, filmmakers Lucky Guillermo (above) and Peter Parsons, with the support of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), collaborated again for their new video documentary titled, Unsurrendered:100 Voices. 

“It is about the spontaneous movement that sprang all over the archipelago when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the Philippines in 1941. This resistance did not wait for defeat and surrender. There were both Filipinos and Americans who went to the hills as early as December of 1941, when MacArthur declared Manila open city,” Guillermo said.

“There are 100 ‘talking heads’ composed of Americans and Filipinos, men and women who escaped, surrendered, unsurrendered and some were spontaneous guerrillas,” Parsons added. 

Among the prominent voices are those of Bob Lapham, Ed Ramsey, Luis Taruc, Manuel Segura and Emmanuel de Ocampo, Gustavo Ingles, Frisco San Juan, Clyde Childress, Albert Montague and Bob Wood; nearly all the major islands in the country are represented.

Parsons is the son of Commander Chick Parsons, the American businessman who decided to stay in the Philippines during the war and was very instrumental in the escape of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. The elder Parsons organized the submarines that supplied the guerrillas with everything they needed—this video also deals with the importance of these subs—but always from the point of view and in the voices of the guerrilla speakers.

Guillermo, the artistic director, is a son of a noted guerrilla leader in Northern Philippines, Antonio Guillermo, alias Lieutenant Silver. Guillermo has collaborated with Parsons on several other documentaries from WWII in the Philippines: Secret War in the Pacific; Ships From Hell; Voyage of Goodwill; Anchored in Friendship, Enshrined in Freedom; and Manila: 1945, The Forgotten Atrocities. These video documentaries have been shown in festivals here and abroad.

Unsurrendered:100 Voices has been invited to have its world premiere at the World Peace Forum Meeting to be held in November this year in Vancouver, Canada. The filmmakers expressed their gratitude to those who supported them, especially PCSO. The postproduction team includes Norbert Marchadesh (editor), Earnest Macalino (technical assistant) and Joselito de Jesus (scriptwriter).

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Sons of war veterans direct ‘Unsurrendered: 100 Voices’

AS part of National Heroes Day and in honor of those who simply didn’t give up during World War II, filmmakers Lucky Guillermo (above) and Peter Parsons, with the support of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), collaborated again for their new video documentary titled, Unsurrendered:100 Voices. 

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