Film short abstract:

Hymns from the Dead is a multimodal exploration of the war on drugs in the Philippines, delving into the interplay of images and sound to narrate stories of state-sponsored violence.

Film long abstract:

Hymns from the Dead is a multimodal exploration of the war on drugs in the Philippines, delving into the interplay of images and sound to narrate stories of state-sponsored violence. Through a careful blend of sound bites, text, and visuals, this piece presents intimate interviews with victims and witnesses while capturing the locations where these harrowing events occurred.

The project seeks to answer two pivotal questions: "How can one narrate stories of violence without reproducing the graphic visuals used in the ruthless campaign against the poor?" and "How can a site be circumscribed through images and sound?" To answer these questions, I turned to victims and witnesses of state-sponsored violence in the Philippines.

The title seeks to explore the spaces that emerge when state-sponsored violence occurs in the largest Catholic countries in Asia. Its ethos comes from the idea that some must die for others to live. In this case, the term 'dead' encompasses spaces where people are assumed to eventually die (i.e., urban poor communities) as well as those killed by the campaign against the war on drugs, while 'hymns' refers to the messages conveyed by the victims and witnesses of these abuses.