Aswang, a documentary of Alyx Arumpac on the killings as part of the Tokhang drug cleansing program initiated in 2017 is a disturbing capture of the nightcrawlers supported with powerful images of adults, situations and children.
Children from the sound bite captures of Jomari and other playmates imbibe the language and posturing of the criminalized adults and the police authorities nonchalantly as casual as a day to day lingo.
Documentary captures at night (except for the Baclaran church service) tracking and tracing of the victims of Tokhang in Barangay 46 Bagong Barrio Caloocan, Eusebio Funeral Parlor Blk. 49 Longos, Malabon, Sitio Kabatuhan Tullahan in Valenzuela to the secret jail in Raxabago Tondo Manila and other sitios ending in EDSA.
A mortician waits for the next case to embalm and to be claimed, a church pastor doubling as a an unnamed EJS nightshift photographer comforts the close relatives of victims, death on the street, funeral parlors, wakes on site, blood on the asphalt, candles at the site of the crime, cramped cemetery graves accommodating bodies in twos and fours, kids poking fun at the difficulty of squeezing bodies at the grave, the discovery of a secret jail behind a cabinet of a police precinct with no documentation are not scenes from a staged movie but documentation of actual scenes morbid and distressing enough to be alarmed.
Yet no police nor military is shown on video except for the sight of a flashing police mobile.
Aswang, in Philippine folklore is a monster symbolizing fear. While distressing, Arumpac ends the documentary with a hint of hope. Some “chose to stand up and look at the monster in the eye. But some refuse to be afraid.”
“Kapag sinasabi nilang may aswang, ang gusto talaga nilang sabihin ay matakot ka
Itong buong lunsod na napiling tambakan ng mga katawan ay lalamunin ka
Tulad ng paano nilalamon ang takot at tatagPero mayroon pa ring hindi natatakot at nagagawang harapin ang halimaw. Dito nagsisimula . . .”
There might be no exit nor end.
Written after viewing Aswang on Vimeo 11 July 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment