Video on Philippine Vampires

As a special contribution to the 2021 conference, Hans Corneel de Roos and his team from the Philippines have prepared a video documentary dealing with the supernatural creatures from this country. 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

70 minutes in 4K.* With c. 500 illustrations, paintings, photos, movie posters, maps, manuscripts, infographics and film clips.
The documentary will premiere as part of the April 2021 International Dracula Conference program. After that, 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, seminars, conferences, etc., 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.

To announce the documentary through a pre-recorded video message (in case the Internet on Bantayan would not function during the conference), Hans created a little clip together with his family. Length: 3 minutes and 36 seconds, Full HD, stereo, English language. Suitable for all audiences.

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