'Call Her Ganda' shows how a marginalized Filipino transgender community takes on a superpower to seek justice
Director PJ Raval's "Call Her Ganda" is a powerful non-fiction investigative documentary about the murder of a Filipina transwoman at the hands of a teenage American Marine and how three women — deeply affected by the killing — fight to seek justice from a foreign superpower. The film, which comes across as an amalgamation of a murder mystery, a courtroom drama and trans-rights activism, also throws light on the deeply troubling post-colonial relationship of the United States with its once colony, Philippines.
Joseph Scott Pemberton, a 19-year-old American Marine, took shore leave in Olongapo City, Philippines in October 2014, where he met Jennifer Laude, a 26-year-old Filipina transgender woman at a bar. The duo subsequently went to a motel room where Laude was later found dead: half-naked, neck blackened with strangulation marks and her head submerged in a toilet bowl. Pemberton was declared the prime suspect in the case and the possible motive was concluded that the Marine was surprised to learn Laude was a transgender and not a woman, and apparently snapped and killed her in a fit of rage and humiliation.
