Balikbayan #1

 Kidlat Tahimik finishes 45-year-old opus

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

Revolutionary filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik outdoes himself again by finally completing a 45-year-old work of art. He started shooting half of the film in 1978 using 60-mm acetate, which, he said, he accumulated much at that time, and went on to shoot the remaining parts over time, and in various formats. From acetate, the movie went on to employ the video format until technology brought filmmaking to the digital age.

Titled "Balikbayan #1: Memories of Overdevelopment Redux 7, the revered filmmaker, along with his bamboo cinema, presents an aural and video tapestry of his alternative post-colonialist version of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition that led to the first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth.

Inspired from Pigafetta's journals, Balikbayan #1 follows the exploits of Magellan's slave, Enrique de Malacca, as he sails with the Portuguese explorer and eventually completes a roundabout journey from point of origin - the island of Mactan.

Redux 3 of Balikbayan #1 premiered in 2015 at the Berlinale Film Festival. Redux 7 contains scenes during the global pandemic as well as recent photography that was used in the last frames of the film.

In 2013, Tatay Kidlat, as film enthusiasts fondly call him, started the construction of the Ili-likha Artists Watering Hole. "This structure, initially, took two years to construct. It was an anti-mall concept and artists are the sellers within the complex where they sell merchandise not found in the malls. 

"In 2018, we constructed the cinema, Balanghay ni Iking (named after Enrique de Malacca) as an outlet purely for indie works. Most of the lumber used herein are from trees felled by the typhoons that visited Baguio. So everytime a typhoon was over, I called the city hall and asked them if we could clear the streets of the felled trunks," shared the filmmaker, while giving us a tour around the intimate theater setting.

"Forty years ago, I was not seriously 'regional.' The local story is what took center stage because I'm from here in Baguio," he continued.

After his 1977 obra "Perfumed Nightmare," Balikbayan #1 will go down the annals of film history as the film that took almost half a century to complete! The over two-hour drama stars Mitos Benitez, Jeff Cohen, Kabunyan de Guia, Katrin de Guia, Kawayan de Guia, Marita Manzanillo, Danny Orquico, Craig Scharlin, George Steinberg, Wig Tysmans, and Marlies von Brevern.