Biography

Kidlat Tahimik (b. 1942, Baguio City, The Philippines) is a pioneer of experimental film in Asia, practicing as a film director, writer and actor. His films are commonly associated with the Third Cinema movement – a film movement begun in the 1960s-70s in Latin America that denounced neocolonialism, the capitalist system and the Hollywood model of cinema as mere entertainment to make money. He is considered the Father of Philippine Independent Cinema, entering the international stage in the late 1970s with ‘Perfumed Nightmare’, a release enabled with the support of filmmakers Werner Herzog and Francis Ford Coppola. Tahimik’s work embraces the essayist form. He is considered a magician of the fragment with an aesthetic often described as whimsical, politically incisive and with a third-world self-consciousness.