Kidlat Tahimik and the Determination of a Native Filmmaker

Abstract

Using field notes drawn from participative research in the context of his home life in Hapao, Ifugao and Baguio City, Benguet, as well as information gathered through interviews with his family, confidantes, and mentees, the article revaluates the oeuvre of pioneering independent filmmaker, Kidlat Tahimik. It is written self-reflexively, approximating the critic’s process of understanding Kidlat’s work through the lenses of a personal encounter. It critiques Kidlat’s cinema, with special focus on Why is Yellow the Middle of the Rainbow? (1994), and reads it as his determination to author himself as “native” and “Third World” filmmaker, the same determination that animates the “independence” of his film practice.