They are celebrating his upcoming film titled ‘Easter Sunday’ which is based in Daly City and celebrates its rich Filipino-American culture.
“I wanted to tell a story about my family, but more importantly, I didn’t just want people to know, only Filipinos can understand that,” Koy said. “When you leave, you’ll be like, this mother is like my mother and this child is like my child. And funny, it’s just funny.”
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Koy was thrilled to shine a light on the Filipino-American culture of Daly City.
“Just representing them, shouting them out in the movie, it’s just my indirect way of giving back the love, you know, shining the light,” he said. “That’s why a movie like this is so important because finally, now my mom can finally see something that looks like her, talks like her, acts like her, lives here in America like her and she can celebrate it. “
Juslyn Manalo, the first-ever female Filipino member of the Daly City City Council, says it’s a representation that is long overdue.
“I would say there were no movies that had a Filipino-American family,” Manalo said.
She believes the key she handed over symbolizes opening the door and keeping the door open for others like her.
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“It’s finally here and Jo Koy opens those doors to so many more like the local actors and comedians and what he does is pay it forward and make sure with that key he’s has opened, he opens it to others,” she said.
Daly City is home to approximately 33,000 Filipino-Americans.
Koy says he hopes the film will send a much broader message to the city’s younger generation.
“You can do it, you’re no longer silent, you’re heard, your story is valuable and not only that, it’s relatable because that’s another thing that we’ve always felt, that we’re not relatable, we’re too specific, it’s like no, it’s funny, my family is like your family,” Koy said.
“Easter Sunday” will be in theaters on August 5.
It is the first studio film centered on a Filipino American family.
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