KIDLAT TAHIMIK

 With Kidlat Tahimik, whose name in Tagalog means “quiet lightning,” the films and the
filmmaker are one. He has continually invented himself through his cinema, and so his cinema is
as singular as the man. Born as Eric de Guia in 1942 in the American-fashioned Baguio City,
north of Luzon, he received his MBA from Wharton and worked as an economist in France
before stumbling upon a 16mm Bolex in Germany.
 His debut film, Perfumed Nightmare (1977), won three prizes at the Berlin Film Festival. It tells
the story of an alter-ego, “Kidlat Tahimik,” a cab driver under the spell of the American
Dream/Perfumed Nightmare. 
 His next three works continue his quest to film counter-histories and to reinvent his
identity. Memories of Overdevelopment, begun in 1980, follows the odyssey of Enrique de
Malacca, slave of Magellan, the first man (a Filipino in Kidlat’s fancy) to circumnavigate the
world. Who Invented the Yoyo? (1981) is about a man who wants to build a space shuttle out of
junk so that he could play yoyo on the moon. Turumba (1983) tells the story of a rural village
that is disrupted and turned into an assembly-line factory by a German businesswoman. It won
Best Third World Film at the Mannheim Film Festival. 
 Each of his works is an evocation of particular places recorded at various times, unified in the
present, first, by the retrospective consciousness of the filmmaker and, second, by the spectator
who journeys with the artist through the act of watching. Kidlat probes cinematic form through
associative juxtapositions, nondiegetic inserts, asynchronous sound design, percussive musical
score, and voiceover, attempting always to arrive at a present and ongoing time. It is this
condition of the self-conscious present with its contingencies and ordinariness that defines the
way Kidlat looks back to the past and looks forward to the future through his films.
 If the direction of Kidlat from the 1970s and 1980s was waking up from the American Dream and
heading home, his direction in the 1990s and 2000s was both outward, through his many travels
and cultural exchanges, and inward, from the busyness of city life to the restful calm of the
mountains.
 Kidlat received a Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (2008)
and the University of the Philippines (2009), the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize (2012), and the
Cinemalaya Award for Outstanding Contribution to Philippine Independent Cinema (2014), in
addition to his Lifetime Achievement trophy from the Film Academy of the Philippines (1994).
 His last film, Balikbayan #1 (2015) [literally, the first returning native], is the completed version
of Memories of Overdevelopment, a work that combines his earlier counter-history with his
later mode of filmmaking. It also concludes with diary footage of Kidlat telling his grandson
about journeys and homecomings and explaining to the spectators why Balikbayan #1, as with
his cinema, cannot be concluded but must ever go on in the quest to become, beyond the
closing credits.
 Figure 2 Balikbayan #1, 2015 Figure 1 Turumba, 1981
Figure 3 Perfumed Nightmare, 1977
BENDICTO “BENCAB” CABRERA

Ben Cabrera, or better noted in Philippine Society as BenCab. BenCab is a Filipino painter,
sculptor and printmaker. He was born in April 10, 1942 in Malabon, Manila, Philippines
which was during the time the Japanese occupied the Philippines. At the youthful age of
seven, BenCab started painting on pavement and walls, inspired by his older brother
Salvador Cabrera, who was already an esteemed artist at the time.
In 1954, when the Cabrera family moved to Tondo, Manila, which is one of the poorest
areas in the country, BenCab developed a passion for the underprivileged. That same year,
Ben Cabrera won his first of the many awards he would achieve, at the Balagtas Elementary
School for his illustration entry in a competition with a Human Rights theme. 
Mediums
Sketches | Oil | Acrylic | Sculpture | Print.
Schools and Accomplishments
Balagtas Elementary School, Arellano High School, UP College of Fine Arts (drops out
before finishing his degree in fine arts), Chelsea School of Arts in London where he takes
special studies in printmaking.
 1959- one of the 5 five finalists of the Castro scholarship in UP School of Fine Arts
 1962- receives 2nd prize for painting “Blue Serenity”, a surreal abstraction of Barung-
Barong (shanties)
 assists in the Ballet theatre Swan Lake staged at the Rizal and UP theatre
 works as an instant portraitist at the Cock-n-Bull Tavern as instant portraitst
 1963- wins first prize for his oil painting of a market or “talipapa” in the UP student
council art competition
 Becomes an illustrator for Liwayway magazine for 3 months

Figure 5 Talipapa,1963 Figure 4 SABEL,2008

A Filipino artists and art entrepreneur based in Baguio City. One of the artists that co-
founded BAG (Baguio Artists Guild). He spent 30 years teaching Arts at the Ateneo de
Manila University in QC. “Every individual has his/her artistic inclinations and propensity
be it visual, music, dance, literary, or fashion and so he/she has the right to enhance and
utilize it creatively,” he is quoted as saying. “Sharing it with others is what makes our life
more meaningful and blessed.”. Put up an Art Workshop, Arko ni Apo, Ilocano for Art of the
Lord. President of Society of Philippine Sculptors. Art Director of Ephpheta Foundation for
the Blind and Vice President for Unesco’s International Art Association (IAA)
Mediums
Mixed-media | Sculptures | Paintings | Installations
Schools
 Ateneo De Manila University in QC (teacher)
Works and Exhibitions
 Kapit-Bisig – a commemorative Narra wood sculpture of four figures locking arms,
which was presented by President Corazon Aquino to the Filipino people on the first
year anniversary of the1986 EDSA Revolution.[2]
 Among Supremo – a sculpture of Andres Bonifacio at Global City, Taguig City
 Thy Will Be Done – A sculpture at the campus of Saint Paul University Quezon City
 St. Aloysius Gonzaga – A sculpture at the campus of Saint Louis University in Baguio
city
 Risen Christ – A statue at Caleruega, Nasugbu, Batangas (All four works above are
cited from wikepedia, which are noted sculpotors by Villanueva made out of Brass,
Metal and Wood)

Figure 8 RISEN CHRIST

Figure 7 Ang Supremo