Manila (CNN Philippines Life) Kapag sinabi nilang may aswang, ang ibig sabihin nila: matakot ka.
The central metaphor of the newest full-length documentary on the Duterte administrations war on drugs campaign isnt just apt; it resonates true to the Filipino experience, like a gong in any locals psyche.
As the first Filipino-directed full-length documentary, it draws parallels with the aswang not just as a vampiric, shape-shifting monster of folklore, but also as a CIA creation for fear-mongering, and as a real-life marauder that mimics the behavior of something out of lower mythology, disguised and clandestine.
Even now during the community quarantine, there are rumors that Iloilo and West Visayan officials are using aswang scare tactics to help impose the curfew against the locals.
In the late 2010s, director Alyx Ayn Arumpac was in Europe for a few years, completing her Docnomads Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Lisbon, Budapest, and Brussels. But she came home in 2015 sans job, later on witnessing how Rodrigo Duterte was elected president. To make ends meet, she took projects and production gigs, while she accompanied her friend, the photojournalist Raffy Lerma (both were former Philippine Collegian colleagues), to his nightwatch rounds on the police and city beats, curious about the rumors of extrajudicial killings.
What Arumpac witnessed on those ride-alongs convinced her of the need for a Filipino perspective on tokhang. Her full-length documentary would not just tackle the emotional heft of the horrid event, but also attempt an expression of her feelings on it that might, she hoped, eventually exorcise her own demons.
From 2016 until post-production in 2019, Arumpac and her crew took to the streets from late night to dawn and bore witness. This was the seed of "Aswang," a joint effort from institutions in France, Norway, Qatar, and Germany that pooled their resources and funding for its completion. First shown at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), it was supposed to have its local premiere in March 2020s Daang Dokyu festival before the lockdown against COVID-19 cancelled all events.
The documentary follows characters whose fates entwine with the growing violence during two years of killings in Manila. The two central ones are Brother Jun Santiago of the Redemptorist Brothers and the young street kid Jomari.
Santiagoworks not just to document the killings but also helps in the funeral and burial fees for those who are left behind, often poor and almost destitute. While Jomari tells the story of the drug war kids, the orphans and the abandoned youth, since in Jomaris case both his mother and father are in prison for drug-related charges. Its pretty good serendip, too, that the filmmaker met Jomari at the wake of Kian Delos Santos.
There is a third character in this trinity: a woman who confesses to being imprisoned inside the secret jail behind the bookshelf and filing cabinet in a police station in Tondo. Like some ghost she only appears in shadow, close shots of her arms and hands as she draws the cramped layout of the cell on a notebook, filled to the nooks with her fellow prisoners.
"Aswang" can be a bit meandering at first, mostly since it assumes you know the major peaks and valleys of the tokhang chronicles from Kian Delos Santos murder and the rise of the tandem shooting modus, to the secret bookshelf jail and the funeral parlors that deal with the influx of the dead.
"Aswang" director Alyx Ayn Arumpac. Photo by MATTEO GARIGLIO
The two major, and arguably more popular, foreign-made documentaries on the drug war are National Geographics "The Nightcrawlers" (U.K.) and PBS Frontline's "On the President's Orders" (U.S.). Theyre mostly straightforward docus of the informative this-and-that-happened type, with talking heads and arms length objectivity. In Arumpacs narrative though is something innately magic realist, something that is innately Asian rather than Western in approach and tenor. This was made for those who couldnt escape the news, who lived daily with the threat of tandem riders.
"Aswang" is a meditation on the tokhang chronicles by a local, at once sublime and gruesome. What makes this different is its point of view: the perception by a Filipino for fellow Filipinos. The tone is quite liberating, making it free to reflect our own collective feelings of frustration, grief, horror, and utter bewilderment back at us.
That it is beautifully composed of imagery worthy of the caliber of a Hollywood movie or South Korean horror cinema, Arumpac credits to her cinematographer Tanya Haurylchyk, and her editors Anne Fabini and Fatima Bianchi. She states that they truly made the gritty visions look cinematically exquisite. For Arumpac though, there was a feeling of aestheticizing the horror, a distrust of the attractive imagery that happened to be bathed in the blood of real people. Its something that the director struggled with.
That you wish this was some fictional Bong Joon-Ho movie is part of why "Aswang" is so effective. Part of what makes it very Filipino is how it hits the emotive inflection points that the other major tokhang documentaries often only casually gloss over in favor of just-the-hard-facts.
"Aswang" never lets the facts get in the way of the truth, finding a way to conjure emotive exorcism without being sentimental or forgetting the plain bloodiness of it all. Arumpac obviously knew the tragedy and sorrow of her country and her fellow Filipinos intimately. Here, she has lovingly constructed an important, unredacted record for these dark times for our own use, free of pretense or agenda.
The film just won theAmnesty International Human Rights Award at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The citation for the film said:[Aswang is a]powerful denouncement against state terror, resilient and painful humanitarian stories coming from different voices, enthralling connections between the popular myth of the Aswang monster and everyday violence, poverty and death looming in the cities. A cry of despair from the marginalized, pleading for justice and human rights.
In this interview, Arumpac, executive producer for GMA News and Current Affairs,talks about the making of this powerful and riveting documentary. Opinions expressed in this interview are the subjects.
"Aswang" never lets the facts get in the way of the truth, finding a way to conjure emotive exorcism without being sentimental or forgetting the plain bloodiness of it all. Photo courtesy of ASWANG 2019
Theres a really intimate and comforting feeling that pervades the film in its tone and vibe that it was made for Filipinos. How did you adjust and manage to toe that creative line?
I insisted on this form. I insisted on the aswang, on using the metaphor. And I was told off many times, mostly by my foreign producers. And then I was told, you know, maybe we can do instead a straight reportage? Or a straight film with talking heads and everything? Just so it could be bought by broadcasters.
I was just saying: No, I still want to do the aswang; I want to do the metaphor. I think that was also basically the guide for me as to how to film it, how to approach it. And then I was very fascinated with the connections as well, the spirituality of the Filipino, since the fact that my protagonist was a priest.
Throughout the process, especially during the first month I really tried digging through my thoughts and feelings. So after every shoot I would go home at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. and I would transfer material right away. Then I would write a bit about what happened during the day, sometimes just to make sure I had the names and locations right. Sometimes I would write about what happened. What I thought. What I felt.
Did you draw on personal experiences about the stories of the aswang?
I am from General Santos City and we lived beside a forest inside this subdivision, because it was a newly constructed subdivision. I was around eight years old, I think. One day the yaya of our neighbor said theres a sigbin [Visayan aswang variant] who roams around the village and lives in that forest. At night you need to sleep and you cant wake up, because if you do and you look at the window youll see red eyes and long nails. The windows back in the day were jalousie types. She said the sigbin would put its long clawed fingernails inside the window to get you. I was terrified for so long!
The documentary follows characters whose fates entwine with the growing violence during two years of killings in Manila. Photo courtesy of ASWANG 2019
The beauty of the cinematography really clashes with the bloody subject matter. Its a stark and very powerful contrast.
One of the things that I wrote [a few months in] and [still] remember: I was saying, you know, I always wanted to make cinematic films, beautiful films, but I wrote down that There's nothing beautiful about this. I mean, how can you make a good film out of this? Because there's nothing good about it. I even felt bad about trying to construct images, trying to construct a frame around this entire situation.
The idea of using a beast from folklore that scares makes this documentary very different and very Filipino. That kind of clarity in a nonfiction product is rare.
The entire idea of this war on drugs for me was finding a common enemy, finding a scapegoat. And that's what the president did there. No one liked the drug user and the drug dealer who would rape kids and [Duterte] made this narrative. It has always existed, but he made this narrative and then he made everyone go against this set of people. So that was his common enemy, the same way that previous generations think they went for the communists. That was very clear to me and this was also why I immediately went for this idea, as well, of the aswang.
While other foreign-made and major documentaries about the war on drugs are very different in approach, we think that Filipinos and those familiar with how the tokhang events and stories have gone may find something ritually therapeutic in watching this docu.
I have to say Filipinos will get it more. Filipinos will feel it more, and it was made that way. I didn't expect foreigners to understand all the connections of the images. But then I also had what you would call a target audience. I knew who I was making the film for, and the sooner that was clear to me then the easier I could make my decisions and the easier the rest of my team would get on board.
"Aswang" will soon be available on video-on-demand internationally.
View original post here:
In this documentary, Duterte's drug war is a hunt for the aswang - CNN Philippines
- SF's new War on Drugs has created dangerous, intolerable conditions in the county jail - 48 hills - 48 Hills - May 17th, 2024 [May 17th, 2024]
- Addiction experts warn against a second 'war on drugs' - STAT - STAT - May 17th, 2024 [May 17th, 2024]
- Eliza Hardy Jones of The War on Drugs on The Emotion and Maximalism Behind Her New Solo LP Pickpocket ... - Glide Magazine - May 17th, 2024 [May 17th, 2024]
- Kat Murti: How To End the Drug War for Good - Reason - May 17th, 2024 [May 17th, 2024]
- Cannabis Rescheduling: Winning the Battle, but Not the War - R Street - May 17th, 2024 [May 17th, 2024]
- House panel to probe killings in Duterte war on drugs - GMA News Online - May 17th, 2024 [May 17th, 2024]
- FACT CHECK: Duterte named in ICC documents on Philippine drug war case - Rappler - May 17th, 2024 [May 17th, 2024]
- The dark legacy of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines - WBUR News - March 12th, 2024 [March 12th, 2024]
- Step up war on drugs and illicit liquors - Nation - March 12th, 2024 [March 12th, 2024]
- Forum From the Archives: Brutality of Philippines War on Drugs Laid Bare in Some People Need Killing - KQED - February 22nd, 2024 [February 22nd, 2024]
- Commentary: We need to rethink how we address drug use - Maryland Matters - February 22nd, 2024 [February 22nd, 2024]
- Liberia: Boakai's War on Drugs Gains Momentum - Liberian Daily Observer - February 22nd, 2024 [February 22nd, 2024]
- Tactics are shifting in the war on drugs - Financial Times - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- End overreliance on punitive measures to address drugs problem ... - OHCHR - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- HSCSO making a dent in the local war on drugs - Malvern Daily Record - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- The Drug War on the Border Doesn't Work - Progressive.org - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- 'When I walk to school, I can see people shooting up.' How Seattle's ... - KUOW News and Information - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- The best gifts ever? Being named after drugs and declaring war on ... - POLITICO Europe - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Latin America This Week: September 20, 2023 - Council on Foreign Relations - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- The drug trade is taking over Latin America - PRESSENZA International News Agency - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Safe Supply Streaming Co. Ltd. Completes Reverse Take-Over ... - The Dales Report - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Critics claim drug use clemency proposal to reduce overcrowding in ... - asianews.network - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- War on illicit drugs | Police warn of meth production, collusion with ... - Fiji Times - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- From Grief to Action - The Stranger - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Police in region to discuss war against drugs - Khmer Times - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Five die in suspected drug turf war in Richards Bay - Durban - IOL - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Mayor Bruce Harrell Shares His New Pitch for the War on Drugs - The Stranger - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- Illinois Governor Signs Supervised Release Bill To Help Drug War ... - Marijuana Moment - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- Activist: Automatically expunging cannabis convictions is step ... - MPR News - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- What the crack epidemic reveals about America - The Boston Globe - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- 'The war on drugs has failed: Sir Richard Branson tells LBC there ... - LBC - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- An Enemy in Mexico - The New York Times - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- Betrayal on the Bayou, a New Season of Hit Podcast Smoke Screen ... - Sony Music - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- Worldwide Wednesday's International Roundup: Bangladesh, China ... - Death Penalty Information Center - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- 46 Bacolod local government workers test positive for drug use - Rappler - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- Jon Bernthal's 12 Best Movies, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes - MovieWeb - August 2nd, 2023 [August 2nd, 2023]
- We Are Continuing the War on Drugs - The Stranger - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Clemency Is One Answer to the War On Drugs | American Civil ... - ACLU - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- As Evidence Mounts That 'War On Drugs' Has Failed, Harm ... - Health Policy Watch - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Families of victims await justice as the ICC reopens Philippines drug ... - NPR - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Why Trump and other Republicans want to go to war in Mexico - Vox.com - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- New Queensland drug laws will keep thousands of people out of justice system, advocates say - ABC News - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Ben Cohen's Cannabis Company Tries to Undo the Harm of the War ... - Seven Days - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Pt. 2: The war on cannabis - Cabrini College Loquitur - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Globe editorial: The tide is turning, but the war on drug overdoses is ... - The Globe and Mail - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Eric Clapton Bringing Crossroads Guitar Festival to L.A., With 41 Guests Ranging From Buddy Guy to the War on Drugs - Variety - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Evaluation of all PNP senior officers has significant impact on war on ... - Manila Bulletin - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- War on Drugs Poster Campaign launched at Pangei bazaar - Pothashang - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Mary Jane, MJ, Weed, Oh my! - The Post - The Post - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Opinion: In defence of drug dealers' humanity - The Globe and Mail - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA: Incarceration for marijuana needs to ... - The Daily Orange - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Today in History: April 23, Hank Aaron's first home run - Sent-trib - Sentinel-Tribune - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- GUEST COLUMN: Legislation would have helped war on opioids - Colorado Springs Gazette - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Positioned to succeed: Organization offers educational program for ... - Youngstown Vindicator - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Miniature organs driving precision medicine and new drug discovery - University of Arizona - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- 18 concerts to see this week, including Father John Misty, Nickel ... - The Key @ XPN - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- 'They are not helping PRRD' | Philstar.com - Philstar.com - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Brandon Ali: By 18 he had a shotgun. At 19 he was smuggling drugs. Age 20 he had murdered a man - Teesside Live - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- Kindiki team shores up gains in drugs, illicit brews fight - The Star Kenya - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- The US Has Spent $1 Trillion Fighting The War On Drugs A Failure, Say The Authors Of New Cannabis Book - Forbes - April 17th, 2023 [April 17th, 2023]
- Gov. Kathy Hochuls cannabis crime bill will destroy lives and restart the War on Drugs (guest column) - newyorkupstate.com - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Official says war on drugs is 'here, local' following discovery of 10K fentanyl-laced ecstasy pills in Silsbee - 12newsnow.com KBMT-KJAC - March 26th, 2023 [March 26th, 2023]
- The War on Drugs: History, Policy, and Therapeutics - Dominican University - March 11th, 2023 [March 11th, 2023]
- The War on Drugs - Crime Museum - March 11th, 2023 [March 11th, 2023]
- What Is the War on Drugs? - WorldAtlas - March 11th, 2023 [March 11th, 2023]
- 9 Important Pros and Cons of the War on Drugs ConnectUS - March 11th, 2023 [March 11th, 2023]
- The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration - A Brief History of Civil ... - March 11th, 2023 [March 11th, 2023]
- The Former Mexican Official Who Oversaw His Nation's War on Drugs Went on Trial in the ... - Latest Tweet - LatestLY - January 25th, 2023 [January 25th, 2023]
- Women and the Drug War | Drug Policy Alliance - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- The War on Drugs as Structural Racism - Penn LDI - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- The Phony War on Drugs - The New York Times - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- Biden pot pardon to help with War on Drugs' harms to Black people : NPR - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- War on Ivermectin: The Medicine that Saved Millions and Could Have ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- IN NUMBERS: The Philippines' 'war on drugs' - RAPPLER - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Race, Mass Incarceration, and the Disastrous War on Drugs - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- The Irrational War on Drugs - consortiumnews.com - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- Race and the Drug War | Drug Policy Alliance - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- Sound Summit 2022: a guide to the Bay Areas highest music festival - SF Chronicle Datebook - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Here's how health and wellness will show up on Denver's November ballot - Denverite - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- 10 Monday AM Reads - The Big Picture - Barry Ritholtz - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]