The filmmaker Alyx Ayn Arumpac discusses her debut feature documentary Aswang, a critical and powerful look at life on the streets of Manila as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wages his war on drugs resulting in extrajudicial killings under his watch, that is playing as part of the DOXA: Documentary Film Festival (06-16 May 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Rodrigo Duterte was elected president of the Philippines in 2016. He ran on a campaign that included the promise of the execution of suspected drug peddlers, users, and small-time criminals. In the early days of his presidency, my guest now Alyx Ayn Arumpac set out to document what was happening in the streets of Manila, where she joins me from now. It’s a literal machinery of death that we see in her feature film debut, Aswang. It is a powerful and important film that is screening as part of this year’s DOXA: Documentary Film Festival that starts this Thursday, 06 May 2021 (and runs until 16 May 2021). In the movie, we see the work of the local undertaker, who arrives at crime scenes to ferry away the corpses of those killed with impunity. There too we meet Brother Jun, a religious brother, who is also a photojournalist, who spends his evenings documenting crime scenes and wakes. In the film, he and his colleagues in the press, expose a secret jail, where local police illegally detain and extort money from mostly innocent people. It’s amongst some of the bizarre scenes playing out in a country where it is reported since 2016, more than 20,000 people have been killed as part of this so-called war on drugs. Duterte is undeterred, and sometimes emboldened like when the former president of the United States, Donald Trump commended him on his efforts. We also meet in the film, a boy of six, Jomari. He is a street kid, streetwise, and resourceful, but still a child, whose parents are likely in prison. He has to fend for himself and it’s heartbreaking to see the reality and perhaps the future that he will face. I ask Alyx about filming him and his story. Alyx Arumpac is a Filipina documentary filmmaker, who received degrees from the Doc Nomads Erasmus Mundus programme, and the University of the Philippines. She produces short documentaries for a television network in Manila. Visit www.doxafestival.ca for tickets and information on the film. It is available across Canada as DOXA continues screening its program this year via streaming. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Alyx Arumpac; Ms. Arumpac, good morning.

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