At UCI I met several South Bay (Carson, Torrance, Cerritos, Long Beach) kids who were all about this drill team meets flag sport. Mike, aka Strawberry Farm Boy/the husband, knew short flags because Oxnard and Channel Islands High School were powerhouse short flag schools back in the day. And from the youtube videos I've researched, Channel Islands is still a powerhouse short flag school. St. Genevieve High School (my high school), which for all intents and purposes was the Filipino American school in the Great-One-Eight in the 90s, did not have short flags. We had drill team. Those were the girls who would go compete in these regional/national competitions. 

So why a short flags documentary?  Because I'm curious about why this sport is dominated by Filipino American girls.

When I mentioned short flags to my fellow This Filipino American Life podcast show Joe, he also had no clue what this sport was about. As a fellow 818 person, he had no experience with short flags. When I sent him a clip his response was ​

"It's like kali meets singkil fan girl meets modern dance." 

I had never thought of it that way, but it made total sense. When we did singkil for PCN, I can recall some of the fan girls talking about short flags. They knew how to hold the fan, how to have their facials be on point, and how to get down the choreography because of short flags.  

​Did you participate in short flags? Was this your life? Will you share you story? If so, please fill out the form below!  If you have any questions feel free to contact me or my partner Eseel. Our contact info is listed in the form. ​