National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Kidlat Tahimik adds another title to his list of accolades: inaugural inductee into the Rolling Stone Philippines’ Hall of Fame.
On November 20 at The Peninsula Manila, Rolling Stone Philippines held its first-ever Hall of Fame ceremony to honor some of the most influential figures in art, journalism, music, sports, media, and film & television. The six inaugural inductees took to the mainstage to receive their honors as the evening’s guests celebrated their influence on culture.
Tahimik was presented by writer, filmmaker, and art curator Erwin T. Romulo, who interviewed the National Artist for Rolling Stone Philippines’ Hall of Fame issue. “Kidlat Tahimik once thought he could be president,” said Romulo, “… but his inner duwende, as he calls it, wanted to break out. He became something more: a father, and then a filmmaker.”
The lights immediately dimmed and, to the surprise of the evening’s audience, Tahimik appeared at the entrance of the ballroom, dressed in a combination of graduation regalia and traditional Igorot bahag. Humming to a graduation hymn, Tahimik marched up the stage and began his surprise performance.
Speaking directly to the audience, Tahimik wove a tale about returning to Baguio after graduating abroad. He spoke of wanting to make a Hollywood blockbuster titled Sex and the Terraces, and then another titled Rambo and the Terraces, until finally realizing that he was moving farther away from the stories of his culture. “I will do films about our mythology,” said Tahimik.
The performance ended with Tahimik clanging on a metal gong, walking into the audience, and inviting guests to audition for his faux movie. “Mabuhay pa ang ating mga kwento,” said Tahimik as he made his way offstage.
Tahimik, a storied filmmaker and artist, has been an indispensable figure in the country’s cultural scene since he released his debut feature Mababangong Bangungot (Perfumed Nightmare) in 1977. The film went on to win the International Critics Award at the Berlin Film Festival and earned praise from cinema auteurs like Francis Ford Coppola, who distributed the film in the United States and once said, “I felt Americans had to see one of my favorite independent films – for its non-Hollywood strengths.”
Tahimik has since written and directed a flurry of films and shorts, including Turumba, Memories of Overdevelopment, and Why Is Yellow the Middle of the Rainbow?, all of which only added to his legacy as the “Father of Philippine Indie Cinema.” Beyond the world of film, Tahimik has expanded the world of Philippine installation art, holding exhibitions around the country and abroad. Throughout his journey as one of the country’s most prolific artmakers was his wife, Katrin Muller-de Guia, herself an artist, author, scholar, and major proponent of Filipino indigenous psychology. De Guia focused her psychological research on the Filipino concept of “kapwa,” a cultural form of compassion and empathy that Tahimik incorporated deeply into his own career and life.
Other inductees into the inaugural Rolling Stone Philippines Hall of Fame include Charo Santos-Concio for Film and TV, Jessica Soho for Journalism, Vic del Rosario Jr. for Media, Paeng Nepomuceno for Sports, and legendary rock band Juan Dela Cruz for Music.
