Rose, an undocumented Filipino girl, dreams of one day leaving her small Texas town to pursue her country music dreams. Her world is shattered when her mom suddenly gets picked up by immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rose, facing this new reality, is forced to flee the scene, leaving behind the only life she knows, and embarks on a journey of self-discovery as she searches for a new home in the honky tonk world of Austin, Texas.
“The lean screenplay and Paragas’ focused creative vision makes for a singular directorial feature debut that feels like nothing else happening in film right now.”
“Heartfelt. Provocative. Affecting on almost every level.”
“Yellow Rose is ultimately a film about kindness. The world can be cruel, but the film’s characters tend not to be. ‘I never fit in, never could win / Though I tried and tried, this feeling don’t end / I feel out of place, sung out of tune / Like a velvet chair in a dusty saloon,’ Rose shares through the lyrics of “Square Peg,” the beautiful country ballad that best sums up her feelings. It’s a keeper, and so is the film.
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“Eva Noblezada is mesmerizing. Country music has been described as ‘three chords and the truth’ and the powerful simplicity of that line courses through the film. Still, it’s the portrait of the immigrant experience through one young woman’s fight to belong that makes ‘Yellow Rose’ a film that stays with you long after it’s over.” Peter Travers, ABC”
“Infused with a deep love and appreciation for the music culture and history of Austin, Texas, a place where Rose (Eva Noblezada) just makes sense as a singer, songwriter and storyteller expressing her true experiences from the heart, like the best country artists always do. That her story is one of struggling to fit in, of losing her mother to an overreaching and inhumane government not only ties her to the greatest country artists of the past, it makes her tale achingly, and appropriately, contemporary.”
“Diane Paragas’ film was a festival circuit smash, and for good reason: the Eva Noblezada-led feature winningly blends immigration drama with musical dreams.”
Yellow Rose is a deeply personal film I've been pursuing for the better part of 15 years.
After escaping Martial Law in the Philippines, my family moved to Lubbock, Texas when I was 4. As the only Filipino growing up in Lubbock, I often felt alienated and I used music and art as means of escape. I even formed a (not very good) band, shaved my head and we managed to record a single and play at bars when I was in high school.
When I started to pursue film, I was interested in the idea of taking those childhood memories but twisting it. If our hero loved Texas and more specifically country music, it would be like a grand unrequited love.
It's no co-incidence that the film finally got financed in this era when anti-immigrant tensions are at an all time high. At the same time, there is a hunger for Asian-American stories like never before.
I'm so excited for audiences to discover the brilliant Eva Noblezada in her debut film.
My hope is that Yellow Rose puts a human face on the plight of Dreamers, while entertaining the audience with original Americana music that they might not have listened to before.
