Video on Philippine Vampires

As a special contribution to the 2021 Children of the Night International Dracula Conference, I prepared a video documentary dealing with the supernatural creatures from this country, together with friends and family. Among these are several kinds of vampires—including the self-segmenting, intestine-sucking, flying Manananggal. Philippine beliefs in such creatures are much older and far more varied than the vampire beliefs documented in Eastern Europe around 1700. The documentary showcases the work of—mostly Filipino—illustrators and painters, and features, among others:

• A dramatic intro with local actors

• Spanish colonialism: Christianity/monotheism versus animist beliefs

• An overview of Philippine supernatural creatures, with special focus on the "Aswang" and vampire kind

• Seven short interviews with local people about their personal experiences with mythical creatures (with English subtitles)

• Background analysis, with emphasis on aspects of gender and power

• The appearance of "Aswangs" and vampires in Philippine mass media and popular culture, with video examples

• Scenes from the iconic movie Kumander Bawang (Commander Garlic) from 1988

• Directory of visual sources

76 minutes in  4K.* With c. 500 illustrations, paintings, photos, movie posters, maps, manuscripts, infographics and film clips.
The documentary has premiered as part of the April 2021 International Dracula Conference program. Now, it will be freely available for academic and educational purposes. At the premiere, a complete transcript of the spoken text and the interviews will be released. The script contains references and links for further reading. For schools and other courses, the script can be used to print handouts for the students.

* 4K is only displayed by Google Chrome, on a 4 K monitor. Otherwise, the video will automatically be shown as Full HD, or smaller formats.

All third-party images here and in the video documentay appear in compliance with the "Fair Use" doctrine.