Fil-Am film editor hits her stride with critically acclaimed TV shows, indies

Film editor Michelle Tesoro. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

LOS ANGELES—Things are looking up for Michelle Tesoro, the NYU-trained motion picture editor from Lincoln Park, Illinois, after working for several years as an assistant editor in television shows and independent films.

Tesoro recently landed coveted editing positions in two critically acclaimed shows. One is Netflix’s “House of Cards,” a political thriller about a conniving United States congressman featuring Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey.

The other is HBO’s “The Newsroom,” a fictionalized historical drama about a cable news network created by Academy Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin.

Michelle is currently in the final stages of finishing a feature film called “Revenge of the Green Dragons,” an ’80s gangster drama about Chinese immigrants in New York City, directed by the Hong Kong-based director of “Infernal Affairs,” Andrew Lau, and executive produced by the Academy Award-winning director of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Martin Scorcese.

Michelle’s mom, Evangeline Tesoro Paredes, in the ’70s. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

But there was always one project she could not get herself to say “yes” to, until now—a film about her mom. “I have this new thing where I’m not going to say ‘no’ to things anymore and say ‘yes’ because you’ll never know how much fun you’ll have,” Tesoro said.

Not a typical mom

Evangeline Tesoro Paredes is not your typical Filipino mom.

She arrived in Lincoln Park, Illinois, in 1965 as part of the third wave of Filipino immigrants who moved to the United States. She came from a family of nurses and doctors from Ilocos Sur. Evangeline describes her father as one of the very first male nurses during World War II.

But unlike other new immigrants, she wanted to make an impact in her community right away. Aside from working as a nurse, she dove into the activities of the Jose P. Rizal Heritage Center, in Chicago, which serves as a gathering place for Filipino-Americans while providing important resources like nursing review classes, dance lessons, senior luncheon programs and Catholic Masses.

She has also maintained her ties to the homeland by staying active in the University of Philippines Nurses Alumni Association of the Midwest (UPNAAM). She earned a reputation for being one of the most outspoken community organizers in Chicago.

“So she’s really involved in the Filipino community in Chicago and they have all these elections. She always describes it as, ‘Oh, bloody Filipino politics! It’s so bloody,’” Michelle jokingly imitates her mom.

“About the votes, she says, ‘I intimidated them, I called them up,’ and I’m like, ‘Mom, you’re like the Frank Underwood of the Filipino community,” she laughs, referring to the ruthless character she helped bring to life in “House of Cards.”

At a timewhen women’s opinions were not as valued in the workplace or in the public sphere, Paredes became one of the flag bearers of empowerment for Filipina immigrants. But because of her devotion to work and community advocacy, she wasn’t always home.

Tagalog lessons

Michelle grew up in the care of her Polish neighbor, Genevieve, and her Auntie Mary, who also worked at the Rizal Center.

Although Michelle took Tagalog lessons at the center for a while, she didn’t stick with it because she rarely found people to speak to, including her mom who, ironically, decided not to teach her children Tagalog.

“I think my mom believed it would confuse us, or inhibit us in some way. I know a lot of children of immigrants who don’t know their parents’ language,” Michelle said.

“There was a theory then that for quick assimilation, you shouldn’t raise your kids bilingual. Of course now, research has shown that growing up bilingual or multilingual is advantageous, and accelerates brain development, etc.”

It’s only in hindsight that Michelle can say that language is a big part of who she is. But she has been also trying to make sense of her identity as a Filipino and American.

In an industry that is mostly Caucasian and male, she spent most of her time working with all-white casts with a few minorities. Despite gaining more access to projects, she sees less of herself in the projects that she works on.

“It’s very weird because you’re not necessarily like the Americans who’ve been here since the Pilgrims, but I’m not Pinoy either,” Michelle said.

So, when she got a request from her mother two years ago, who was then celebrating her 50th year as nurse, to do a documentary on her, she felt both overwhelmed and unprepared.

“I don’t know the reason why I couldn’t do it, but I told her, ‘You should get our friend Oscar to shoot. He can send the footage back and I can take a look at it,’” Michelle recalled.

Identity issue

The issue of identity continued to fascinate Michelle as she delved into her new project.  “Revenge of the Green Dragons” is the first film Tesoro has worked on with an all-Asian cast. In Hollywood, this kind of film almost never gets funding especially if the film is shot in America.

After receiving the script from her agent, she was immediately drawn to the story, which is based on a journalistic piece about an Asian-American gang in Queens called the Green Dragons.

The film examines the struggles of Asian immigrants and how being part of a dangerous yet protective family helped them get accepted by American society, even if it came with a huge price.

“I read the New Yorker article that the movie was based on, and it’s a really interesting story and I also thought it was timely in terms of immigration. I just don’t think it’s anything that anyone knows about,” Michelle said.

Even if most of the film’s crewmembers were Chinese from mainland China and Chinese-Americans, she became very excited to work on it. She also flew to Hong Kong to work with Lau on editing the film, meet his production team and get to know his sensibilities a little bit more in his natural surroundings.

More than anything else, Michelle relished working on a project that increased representation for Asians beyond stereotypical roles that you see in mainstream entertainment.

“You watch these things on television and they’re telling stories that you’re supposed to relate to. If you don’t see someone that looks like you, you don’t feel like you’re a part of that world, and I think that’s really important,” Michelle said.

A film for Mom

Tesoro thinks that it may now be a good time to make her mom’s life into a movie.

“She’d love that, it would be filled with drama. She would love a story about her. It’ll be more about her life, not just her work,” Michelle said.

Looking back, she confesses to not being mature enough to understand her mom’s demands and the importance of sharing her mom’s life experiences.

“I lacked the maturity in my 20s to understand my mom is not just my mother, but a woman and a human being with struggles. Having now experienced being a woman in the workforce, and knowing how independent and head-strong my mother is, I think that she probably was born too early,” Michelle observed.

“Being a single mother, a working woman, would be completely different today than it was in the ’60s and ’70s. Young women today have women of her generation to thank for their opportunities.”

As for learning Tagalog, planning a visit to the Philippines with her mom for the first time might be the much-needed incentive for her to take classes once again.

“I think I need to go because I still have my aunts back there who I’ve never met before, my mother’s sisters who live in the city near Tacloban, actually. Maybe I can force my mom to go but I’m not counting on it,” she said.

Who knows, it may help her get on with the film her mom has always wanted her to make.

 Originally posted: January 21, 2014 | 9:27 am