INDEPENDENT filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik, named before as Eric de Guia, is this year's recipient of the highest award given by the University of the Philippines (UP) to a media practitioner.

He will receive the 2009 UP Gawad Plaridel for his outstanding contributions to independent filmmaking on July 10, a Wednesday, at 1:30 pm at the Cine Adarna of the UP Film Institute.

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UP officials will give him a trophy sculpted by National Artist Napoleon Abueva. As part of the ceremonies, he will also deliver a lecture on independent filmmaking.

The event is open to the public.

Inspired by the progressive ideals of Marcelo H. del Pilar (nom de plume, Plaridel) of the reformist newspaper La Solidaridad in the 1890s, the annual award honors a Filipino media practitioner whose professional integrity and commitment to public service are reflected in his or her exemplary achievements in print, film, radio, television, or the new media.

Kidlat Tahimik was chosen for his excellence in the art and craft of cinema, as well as for pioneering efforts in introducing Philippine independent filmmaking to a global audience.

His independence as an artist is reflected in the non-commercial nature of his films, inspiring budding Filipino filmmakers to follow his example and to listen to their "inner duwende (dwarf)."

He joins past UP Gawad Plaridel awardees Eugenia Duran-Apostol (2004, Print Journalism), Vilma Santos (2005, Film), the late Fidela "Tiya Dely" Magpayo (2006, Radio), Cecilia Lazaro (2007, Television), and Pachico A. Seares (2008, Community Journalism).

Established by the UP College of Mass Communication, the UP Gawad Plaridel is supported by Coca-Cola Company and Unilever Philippines.

Why he changed his name to Kidlat Tahimik

The artist formerly known as Eric de Guia was in the headlines recently precisely for that name change. Kidlat, a multi-awarded independent and, to some, a bizarre filmmaker, wanted to discard the colonial taint that the European Eric and the Spanish de Guia has burdened his crusade to advocate the pure Filipino.

Despite the efforts of the Office of the Solicitor General to object to Kidlat's arguments, he finally got his wish. This latest episode in the life of this Wharton-trained economist is stuff for the movies. But he is not about to make one. At least not the film we all end up enjoying.

Resume

His resume tells us why.

Kidlat was born Eric de Guia on Oct. 3, 1942 in Baguio City. His mother is Virginia de Guia, a former post-war mayor of Baguio and a crusader today for issues that are not always popular. Eric studied grade school at the Maryknoll Convent School between 1947 and 1954, graduated later from the St. Louis University Boy's High School (1954-1958), and finished speech drama at the University of the Philippines in Diliman (1958-1963).
He pursued his graduate studies at the Wharton School University of Pennsylvania, and took on research consultancy for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris between 1968 and 1972.

Changed

Then his world changed.

Following a process of deconstruction, the wiry, long-faced economist tore up his Wharton diploma and cleansed himself between 1972 to 1975 in order to pursue an artist's life. His resume does not explain how the imposition of Martial Law in 1972 affected his deconstruction.

He describes 1975 up to the present as his life's period of restructuring. He fathered the KKK - his boys Kidlat de Guia (who is now a television and film director), Kawayan de Guia (who is Kidlat Tahimik's blond, blue-eyed artistic wildfire in Baguio), and the youngest Kabunyan.

But it was 1977 that introduced Kidlat Tahimik to the world.

His cinematic dissertation called "Mababangong Bangungot" ("Perfumed Nightmares") won the international film critics’ jury prize at the Berlin Film festival, as well as the Catholic Jury Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

"These awards reinforced Kidlat's commitments to stay out of the commercial film industry's sex and violence formulas," his resume states.