Pinoy artist Kidlat Tahimik awarded today at CCP

KIDLAT Tahimik, the renowned Filipino artist and filmmaker, will be awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Arts on Wednesday, August 8, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) because of his various contributions to the preservation of Asian culture and film making.

Lately, he is making a backdrop called the “Film Banig” for his figurines to be showcased at the CCP. It is made of old, 35 millimeter film strips woven together to form a “banig”. The figurines are made of rattan and they would be holding custom-made bamboo cameras.

Kidlat said our country is not using film properly and most of it are about sex and violence. He said that they only made films to maximize their own profit and nobody tells the local story. He also said nobody really cares about the story or the values it may bring to the youth.

So this inspired him to make the rattan figurines with the bamboo cameras as a call to the young Cordilleran to show the whole world that we have a rich culture to show off. (Cherry Lacbawan)