Kidlat Tahimik

An in-depth conversation with director, artist, and multidisciplinary performer Kidlat Tahimik. Writer Pamela Cohn talks to the prominent Filipino filmmaker about his body of work, creative process, and shifting boundaries between genres and cultures.

Kidlat Tahimik is considered the godfather of Philippine New Wave cinema. His very first film Perfumed Nightmare (1977) won the FIRPESCI Prize at Berlin Film Festival and was released in the US by Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope studio. His free, experimental, and uncompromising visual language employs various performative methods outside conventional dramaturgy. His films include: Why Is Yellow the Middle of the Rainbow?, Turrumba, Orbit 50: Letters to My 3 Sons, Japanese Summers of a Filipino Fundoshi, BUBONG! (Roofs of the World! UNITE!). Like in many of his films, the artist appears as a protagonist in the epic essay Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III, which was awarded the Caligari Prize at the 2015 Berlinale.

Kidlat Tahimik has recently been working with shorter forms and installations, having multiple exhibitions in leading art institutions all over the world.