Episode 07 - Aswang with Alyx Arumpac

A conversation with director Alyx Ayn Arumpac about her remarkably powerful and brave film, ASWANG. 

ASWANG tells the story of the national war on drugs in the Philippines. Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016 and announced his campaign to rid the Philippines of drug addicts and dealers, as many as 20,000 Filipinos have been murdered — usually at night and always at the hands of vigilantes, hired assassins, or police officers. 

In her unflinching debut feature documentary ASWANG, Arumpac confronts these executions and their aftermath through the eyes of several families that have been left without a father, a brother, or a son. 

ASWANG is a brave film, and Arumpac is a fearless filmmaker that breathlessly follows the everyday struggle of those radically affected by the regime as she chronicles the terror and systematic human rights violation that unravels against the backdrop of the Manila slums.

ASWANG premiered at IDFA, where it won the prestigious FIPRESCI Award. It then was invited to screen at MoMA in New York as part of their Doc Fortnight Documentary Film Festival, True/False, Geneva International Film Festival, One World Prague (where it was nominated for the Jury Prize), and Cinema du Reel.

I caught up with Alyx Ayn Arumpac to discuss her film, her experience taking on politically provocative topics, and navigating emotionally charged violent filming scenarios. 

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ABOUT THE DIRECTORS / Alyx Ayn Arumpac

Alyx Ayn Arumpac is a Filipina documentary filmmaker. She studied film at the Docnomads Erasmus Mundus Joint Master (in Lisbon, Budapest, and Brussels) and the University of the Philippines. Aswang is her debut feature.