Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey

Premiered September 30, 2013

Directed by

Ramona S. Diaz

In a real-life fairy tale, a singer is plucked from YouTube to front an iconic band, and must deal with the pressures of replacing a legend.

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About the Documentary

Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey follows the real life rock ‘n’ roll fairy tale of Filipino singer Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the frontman for the iconic American rock band Journey. In this Cinderella story for the ages, Arnel, having overcome a lifetime’s worth of hardships, must now navigate the immense pressures of replacing a legendary singer and leading a world-renowned band on their most extensive world tour in years.

Journey has created some of the best-known songs in rock music since the ‘70s, and continues to tour and record into the 21st century. With the band in need of a new singer, Journey guitarist Neal Schon scoured the internet to find worthy candidates. When he ran across video of a vocalist in the Philippines performing with a band called Zoo, Schon was impressed by the man’s tone, power, and ability to sing a wide variety of material — including several Journey classics.

What happened next is the stuff dreams are made of, as Pineda not only becomes a celebrity to rock enthusiasts but an inspiration to proud Filipino Americans and fans in his home country.

The Filmmaker

Ramona S. Diaz’s Spirits Rising, about women’s roles in the 1986 People Power revolution in the Philippines, won numerous awards including a Golden Gate Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival. Diaz’s documentary Imelda, about the former First Lady of the Philippines, garnered the Excellence in Cinematography Award for documentary at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released theatrically in the United States and the Philippines, screened in over 50 film festivals around the world, and broadcast on Independent Lens. Diaz’s The Learning was part of POV’s 24th season on PBS. Diaz is a graduate of Emerson College, and holds an MA in Communication from Stanford.