AllMovie

Factsheet

• Worked with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris as a researcher from 1969-1974; left job and went to Munich to sell memorabilia at the 1972 Olympics.
• Gave up his career to become an artist and changed his name to Kidlat Tahimik that means quiet lighting.
• Met German filmmaker Werner Herzog, who cast him in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974); became his protégé.
• Directed The Perfumed Nightmare (1977) that premiered at the Berlin film festival and is regarded as a benchmark for Third Cinema; won that year's International Film Critics award at the festival.
• Was professor and filmmaker-in-residence at the San Francisco State University in 1990.
• In 1993, received the Film Achievement Award from the Film Academy of the Philippines.
• His film, Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III (2015), was in the making for more than 30 years; won the Caligari Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
• Is known as the Father of Philippine Independent Cinema by fellow filmmakers and critics.