Kano: An American and His Harem

2010, Monster Jimenez, 80 minutes, Filipino

In 1969, an American Vietnam War hero by the name of Victor Pearson moved to a poor, remote village in the Philippines and invited hundreds of women to live with him. In 2002, he was charged with over 80 counts of rape. In the Philippines, he is known as Kano, Filipino slang for Amerikano. After five years of shooting and weeks of interviews with lawyers, city officials, social workers, and Pearson’s friends, filmmaker Monster Jimenez eventually found the focus of her story in the people closest to Pearson: his women. She interviewed Pearson’s daughter, his sisters, and the women he slept with. Pearson is now in jail, but many of the women remain by his side. In this compelling debut film, Monster Jimenez creates a portrait of dysfunctional extended family, the story of how love, power, violence, and the deep roots of poverty and abuse intertwine the lives of a charismatic small-town boy from Oregon and countless women from one of the poorest areas of the Philippines.

Monster Jimenez is an award-winning writer and filmmaker who has worked in newspapers, magazines, television, and film. She is now a partner at Arkeofilms, an independent film production company where she acts as managing director. In 2005, she wrote and produced the feature film Big Time (directed by Mario Cornejo), which won Best Screenplay among other awards at the first Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. She also produced a full-length feature Baby Angelo (directed by Joel Ruiz) in 2008, which was a finalist at Cinemalaya and was screened at the Busan International Film Festival. Kano is Jimenez’s directorial debut. Her most recent project is a short documentary entitled Are Clouds Blue?: The Story of Sick Books, partially funded by the Goethe-Institut and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (Philippines).