Eric de Guia (born October 3, 1942 in Baguio City) better known as Kidlat Tahimik, is a filmmaker, writer, artist and actor whose films are commonly associated through their critiques of neocolonialism with the Third World Cinema movement.
Tahimik studied at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, earned a Master in Business Administration, and worked as a researcher for the Organizaton for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris from 1968 to 1972 before "returning home to be a filmmaker and ending as a G-stringed (bahag) adopted son of Ifugao."
Tahimik grew up in Baguio City, Philippines, a sumer resort community established in the presence of several U.S. Military bases. This experience was a weighty influence on the themes of his films, most notably the semi-autobiographic al Perfumed Nightmare (1977) and Turumba (1981). The latter provides some insight into the circumstances that brought him to Europe and into the presence of filmmaker Werner Herzog, who along with director Francis Ford Coppola and his American Zoetrope Films was instrumental in helping released Perfumed Nightmare in America. This film went on to win the international film critics jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival, as well as the Catholic Jury Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize.
KIDLAT TAHIMIK RETROSPECTIVE
January 12 - 15, 2009
UP Film Center
Opening Night: January 12, 6PM
Opening Film: "Why is Yellow The Middle of the Rainbow" aka "Bakit Yellow Ang Gitna Ng Bahaghari" aka "I Am Furious. . .Yellow" (1994)
Venue: Ishmael Bernal Gallery, UP Film Center aka Cine Adarna
Presented by UP Film Institute with .MOV International Digital Film Festival, UP Silip, UP Cineaste, UP Cinema, UP Cast, Mighty Bhutens,and Filmless Films.
