Focus on Kidlat Tahimik
Kidlat Tahimik: Mengklaim Kembali Narasi Kita dalam Sinema
Tak bisa dipungkiri bahwa keseharian budaya masyarakat Asia dan Afrika cenderung berkiblat ke Barat, sebagai imbas lanjutan dari kolonisasi Barat di abad-abad sebelumnya. Penjajahan tersebut bertahan hingga hari ini, dalam bentuk yang kontemporer: mulai dari pengukuhan bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa internasional, sampai produk Hollywood yang mendominasi budaya pop di dunia. Kidlat Tahimik, salah seorang pembuat filem paling berpengaruh di Filipina, bahkan Asia Tenggara, menyadari hal ini, dan merespon penjajahan baru ini dengan segar dalam karya-karyanya. ARKIPEL homoludens – 6th Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival turut melibatkan beliau dan karya-karyanya dalam program Focus on Kidlat Tahimik yang dikurasi Merv Espina, dan kuliah umum yang diadakan Komite Teater DKJ yang bertajuk “Performativitas dari Singularitas antara Sinema dan Pencarian Jati Diri”.
Ada impresi tertentu yang ditangkap saat menemui pemilik nama asli Eric de Guia ini untuk pertama kalinya. Penampilannya menonjol dari orang-orang di sekitarnya, dengan rambut putih panjang, memakai overall dan kaos putih yang sudah lusuh. Di usianya yang mencapai 75 tahun, sorot matanya tampak bijak, dan selalu menatap lawan bicaranya, bahkan saat bicara dengan banyak orang. Keceriaan anak-anak pun tak lantas hilang dari dalam dirinya, namun menampilkan diri secara konsisten dalam tiga karyanya yang ditayangkan dari 14 – 15 Agustus 2018 di Kineforum, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta Pusat, yakni Mabagong Bangungot (The Perfumed Nightmare), Sinong Lumikho ng Yoyo? Sinong Lumikha ng Moon Buggy? (Who Invented the Yo-yo? Who Invented the Moon Buggy?), dan Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux VI.
Tangkapan layar filem The Perfurmed Nightmare, Kidlat tahimik, 1977
Hampir semua ceritanya mengisahkan perjalanan sang tokoh utama lugu dalam mencapai impian besarnya. Salah satunya dalam The Perfumed Nightmare, Kidlat si tokoh utama memiliki impian pergi ke Amerika Serikat untuk menemui Werner Von Braun, pembuat pesawat pertama menuju Bulan. Who Invented the Yo-yo? Who Invented the Moon Buggy? dapat dibaca sebagai kelanjutan dari filem sebelumnya, di mana Kidlat akhirnya berkesempatan membangun kapsul pribadi untuk terbang ke bulan. Sementara Balikbayan menceritakan perjalanan pertama mengelilingi bumi yang dilakukan Ferdinand Magellan dari sudut pandang budak lugunya, Enrique de Malacca, seorang penduduk asli Filipina yang mendadak terekspos kepada keberagaman dunia.
Lugu bukan berarti bodoh. Sudut pandang yang terbuka dan kekanakan dapat membuka ruang untuk bereksperimen, mempertanyakan, dan berkreativitas. Beberapa kali dalam kesempatannya berbicara setelah penayangan, ia mendorong para penonton untuk mempertanyakan aturan-aturan yang telah diciptakan dan menciptakan jalan kami masing-masing. Hanya dengan kesadaran nonkonformis tersebut, Duende (energi kreatif, panggilan jiwa) dalam diri kami masing-masing, dapat terdengar, dan kita dapat menceritakan cerita kita dengan cara masing-masing.
Performans Kidlat Tahimik tentang seorang yang baru saja lulus dari Universitas Hollywood
Dalam praktik berkaryanya, Kidlat menggunakan suaranya dengan sadar untuk menentang status quo. Selama dua hari penayangan filemnya di Kineforum, ia menata sebuah karya instalasi di ruang tengah berupa sebuah adegan di mana dewi angin suku pedalaman Filipina, Inabian, meniup dewi angin Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe. Dua patung dewi tersebut dipahat dari kayu dan dilengkapi oleh kamera kecil yang terbuat dari bambu, melambangkan sinema lokal yang tengah dalam dilema antara menangkap kisahnya sendiri atau mengikuti arus yang didiktekan budaya pop Barat. Pun karya sinematiknya menyuarakan kritik keras akan bentuk kapitalisme maupun kolonialisme kontemporer, dan seruan bagi masyarakat dunia ketiga untuk mengklaim kembali narasinya masing-masing. Salah satu contoh yang cukup serius adalah Balikbayan, usahanya untuk menantang klaim sejarah Barat bahwa Ferdinand Magellan adalah orang pertama yang melakukan perjalanan memutari Bumi, dengan cara menyorot cerita dari sudut pandang Enrique dan usaha pemuda Filipina masa kini untuk mengenali kembali sejarahnya.
Tangkapan layar filem Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux VI
Topik ini dibahasnya secara mendalam di kuliah umum yang diadakan di Studio TOM FFTV IKJ, Rabu (15/8) lalu. Sembari memahami tema akademis yang dipersiapkan Komite Teater Dewan Kesenian Jakarta sebagai panitia penyelenggara, “Performativitas dari Singularitas antara Sinema dan Pencarian Jati Diri”, ia memaparkan filosofinya dalam berkarya yang dimulai dari adanya kesadaran akan kecenderungan didaktis otoritas. Ia menyebut adanya echo chamber atau “ruang gaung”, tempat pendiktean ini berlangsung, di mana suatu aturan yang dirumuskan akan terus bergaung, menjelma jadi status quo dan mempengaruhi praktik kerja kita. Ruang gaung ini dapat pula menjadi analogi bagi cara kerja kapitalisme dan kolonialisme. Seorang seniman yang berkarya harus menyadari keberadaan ruang gaung dan mengintervensinya, agar mereka dapat membuka diri kepada cerita yang berasal dari diri sendiri. Tendensi untuk mengikuti Barat dan mementingkan teknis daripada “jiwa” dari cerita dapat mengikis empati dan hubungan seniman dengan semesta dan duende tersebut. Ruang gaung dapat juga berasal dari kritisisme yang datang dari orang lain maupun diri sendiri. Kidlat mencontohkan bahwa seniman dalam proses berkaryanya biasa dituntut untuk mampu produktif, mengikuti prosedur, efisien, memiliki kontinuitas, dan sebagainya, namun dirinya berhasil keluar dari ruang gaung tersebut dalam proses produksi Balikbayan yang memakan waktu 35 tahun. Ia sempat mendiamkan filem tersebut selama beberapa tahun, lalu ia berkonsentrasi pada hal lainnya seperti membesarkan anak-anaknya. “Tak mungkin ada produser Hollywood yang mau bekerja dengan orang seperti itu,” candanya. Dengan kata lain, ia tahu cara berkarya yang tepat bagi dirinya, dan berusaha melakukannya dengan caranya sendiri.
Sesi diskusi di FFTV IKJ
Dalam sesi tanya-jawab, seorang penonton mempertanyakan tendensi Kidlat untuk “memasukkan” dirinya ke dalam filem-filem yang ia buat, dan sejauh manakah seseorang dapat menyatukan kehidupan personal dengan karya yang ia buat? Pertanyaan yang cukup relevan, mengingat masih banyaknya kritik masyarakat awam terhadap seniman-seniman yang berkarya berdasarkan kehidupan personalnya, tuduhan narsisisme dan mempertontonkan ego, dan sebagainya. Kidlat pun menanggapi bahwa dia menjadi aktor dalam setiap kisahnya karena ia ingin menceritakan kisahnya dengan caranya sendiri. Tak dapat dipungkiri bahwa identitas akan selalu menjadi bagian dari karya seniman mana pun. Kidlat kembali mengingatkan kita bahwa Enrique mampu bertahan hidup saat Magellan dibunuh oleh suku setempat, karena ia yakin akan identitas asalnya. Tentu saja bagi generasi muda di hari ini, identitas adalah hal yang kompleks saat adanya tegangan terus-menerus antara dorongan gaya hidup modern dan lokalitas kita, namun keduanya tak selalu harus bertegangan, bahkan dapat berkolaborasi. Sikap tersebut cukup direpresentasikan oleh kaos putih yang sempat dipakainya di penayangan hari pertama, yang bergambar tokoh E.T. memakai kostum tradisional Filipina, yang menurut ceritanya diproduksi oleh salah satu penduduk suku asli di sana. Namun, pada akhirnya, ia menyimpulkan bahwa cerita mengenai siapa diri kita adalah cerita yang paling menarik dan harus diceritakan.
Kuliah hari itu sebenarnya dapat disimpulkan dalam seni penampilan yang dilakukannya setelah penayangan cuplikan filem Balikbayan. Monolog satir tersebut menggambarkan benturan antara dominasi industri perfileman Barat dan lokalitas, melalui penceritaan teatrikal seorang pemuda yang baru lulus dari Universitas Hollywood yang kemudian berambisi membuat ulang filem Hollywood versi lokal, namun kemudian ia menyadari bahwa dirinya mampu berdaya dalam lokalitasnya, dan mulai ingin membuat filem mengenai budaya lokal. Sebelumnya, penampilan tersebut sempat dipentaskannya setelah penayangan The Perfumed Nightmare. Saat pertama kali menontonnya, saya merasa takjub atas kespontanan tersebut, mulai dari awal ia memakai jubah wisuda lengkap dengan toganya, hingga ia membuka kostum tersebut, memunculkan pakaian lokal berupa kain tenun yang diikat membentuk cawat.
Afrizal Malna saat membuka kuliah umum Kidlat Tahimik
Melalui penampilan ini, terbacalah peta berkesenian Kidlat yang konsisten “memberontak” dari kuasa yang mengekang, entah itu kolonialisme, kapitalisme, kritisisme, batasan pendidikanmaupun rangkaian aturan pemerintah; dan perebutan kembali kamera sebagai simbol kontrol atas narasi yang dilakukan oleh masyarakat lokal. Namun, pemberontakan tersebut sering kali dilakukan dengan cara yang riang dan khas anak-anak. Anak-anak cenderung masih belum memahami struktur imajiner yang diciptakan orang dewasa, sehingga mereka menemukan cara sendiri untuk melakukan segala sesuatu sembari bermain-main dan mempertanyakan hal-hal tersebut.
Saat berjalan kembali dari Lounge menuju penginapan bersama Kidlat, saya mengungkapkan kekaguman saya akan karya-karyanya yang memiliki pernyataan yang jelas. Ia menjawab, “Mungkin, itu karena saya tidak berusaha membuat pernyataan.” Sesaat saya terdiam, bukan karena kehabisan obrolan, namun karena memikirkan perkataan tersebut. Bisa jadi, ia tak sedang membuat pernyataan, namun hanya menuangkan keinginannya bercerita. Bisa jadi, ia hanya menyalurkan tenaga duende-nya dan semesta-lah yang berbicara melalui dirinya. Siapa yang tahu?
Kidlat Tahimik dan Arkipelabor di depan Lounge ARKIPEL
Perjalanan kami menuju penginapan terhenti saat Kidlat melihat mobil partai bergambar Soekarno dan Megawati Soekarnoputri. Ia meminta agar kami merekam video dirinya sedang bercakap-cakap dengan Soekarno, salah satu hal yang menghubungkan dirinya dengan Indonesia. Memang, dalam beberapa kesempatan ia membawa foto lawas ibunya, seorang walikota di Baguio, bersama Soekarno yang kebetulan mengunjungi kotanya, dan bercerita bahwa dirinya yang masih kecil pun pernah menjumpai Soekarno pada kesempatan itu. Di sebelah gambar Soekarno yang tertempel di belakang mobil itu, dan cahaya apa adanya yang menerangi percakapan tersebut, ia mengungkapkan harapan bagi kedua negara, Indonesia dan Filipina, untuk menemukan jati dirinya agar bisa menjadi lebih baik daripada negara-negara besar dengan bom atom dan pesawat roket mereka. Sebuah mimpi besar, yang perlahan ia wujudkan melalui cerita-ceritanya yang sederhana.
Focus on Kidlat Tahimik
Kidlat Tahimik: Reclaiming our Narrative in Cinema
It is a fact that the daily life of Asian and African society today refers to the Western culture, as a prolonged impact of the colonization in the previous centuries. The colonization stayed until this day, in a more contemporary form: the establishment of English language as an international language, until Hollywood products that dominate the pop culture consumption around the world. Kidlat Tahimik, one of the most influential filmmakers in the Philippines, even in the Southeast Asia, realized this phenomenon, and responded to it in a new, refreshing way through his works. ARKIPEL homoludens – 6th Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival involved him and his works in the program Focus on Kidlat Tahimik curated by Merv Espina, and a general lecture by Jakarta Arts Council Theatre Committee, titled “Performativity from Singularity between Cinema and Self-Discovery”.
A certain impression gave away upon meeting the man born as Eric de Guia for the first time. His appearance stood out from the people around him, with his long, white hair; wearing a washed-out white shirt behind an overall. In his 75th year of life, his gaze was full of wisdom, and he always look straight to the person he is talking to, even when he is talking in front of many people. His childish delight does not fade, but consistently shows itself in three of his works screened between the 14th to the 15th of August, 2018, in Kineforum, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta, which are Mabagong Bangungot (The Perfumed Nightmare), Sinong Lumikho ng Yoyo? Sinong Lumikha ng Moon Buggy? (Who Invented the Yo-yo? Who Invented the Moon Buggy?), and Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux VI.
Screenshot from The Perfurmed Nightmare, Kidlat tahimik, 1977
Almost all of his films tell the innocent main character’s journey to make his big dreams come true. One of them is The Perfumed Nightmare, where Kidlat, the main character, wanted to go to America to meet Werner von Braun, the engineer of the first spaceship that landed on the moon. Who Invented the Yo-yo? Who Invented the Moon Buggy? can be read as the sequel to the previous film, in which Kidlat finally had the chance to build his personal capsule to fly to the moon. Meanwhile, Balikbayan tells a story of the first circumnavigation ever done by Ferdinand Magellan, through the perspective of his innocent slave, Enrique de Malacca – an Asian indigenous person who were suddenly exposed to the diversity of the world.
Innocence does not equal to ignorance. An open, childish perspective can open the windows to experimentation, questioning, and creativity. Few times in his chances to speak after a screening, he pushes the audience to question the existing rules and carve our own path. Only with this non-conformist awareness, the inner Duende (creative force, a calling from the soul) can be heard, and only then we can tell our stories in our own way.
Kidlat Tahimik’s performance about someone who recently graduated from ‘University of Hollywood’
In his practice, Kidlat is aware on using his voice to reject the status quo. Throughout those two days of his screening at Kineforum, he built an artistic installation in the waiting room, consisting a scene where the indigineous tribe’s goddess of the wind, Inabian, blew the Hollywood’s goddess of the wind, Marilyn Monroe. These two goddess statues were carved from wood, and between them stood a small camera made of bamboo, representing the local cinema in a dilemma between capturing its own story or following the mainstream Western pop culture. His cinematic works criticizes the contemporary forms of capitalism and colonialism, also a calling for third-world societies to reclaim their narratives. One of his examples is Balikbayan, his attempt to challenge the claim from Western history that Ferdinand Magellan is the first person to circumnavigate the Earth, through the perspective of Enrique and a modern-day Filipino young man trying to get reacquainted with his history.
Screenshot from Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux VI
This topic was explored further in a general lecture held at Studio TOM FFTV IKJ (Faculty of Film and TV, Jakarta Arts Institute), last Wednesday (8/15). While struggling to understand the academic theme provided by the Jakarta Arts Council’s Committee Theatre as the organizer, “Performativity from Singularity between Cinema and Self-Discovery”, he explained his philosophy behind his arts, starting from the awareness of the authority’s didactic tendency. He called this an “echo chamber”, where this process of dictation goes on, where established rules will keep echoing around our head, becoming a status quo and influencing our works. This echo chamber also becomes an analogy to the process of capitalism and colonialism. An artist has to realize this echo chamber and intervene it, so they can open themselves to stories that comes from within. The tendency to copy the Western way and prioritize the technical aspect before the soul of the story can reduce the artist’s empathy and connection to the universe, or their duende. The echo chamber can also come from criticisms, be it from ourselves or from others. Kidlat gave an example that an artist is always pushed to be productive, follow the procedure, efficient, has a continuity, and everything else, but he came out of that echo chamber through the production of Balikbayan, which took 35 years to complete. He even paused the work for a couple of years to concentrate on other things, like raising his sons. “No Hollywood producers would work with that kind of director,” he joked. In another word, he knows his way of doing his art, and tried to do it exactly that way.
Q&A session at FFTV IKJ
In a Q&A session, an audience asked a question about Kidlat’s tendension to put his real-life self in his works, and how far can someone integrate their personal lives and their works. A relevant question, remembering the amount of criticism were given to artists who create their works based on their personal lives—that they were narcissist, displaying their ego too much, and many more. Kidlat responded that he always becomes his own main actor, because he wants to tell his stories in his own way. It is undeniable that an artist’s identity will always become a part of his work. Kidlat reminded us that Enrique survived from the indigenous tribes’ attack, while Magellan did not, because he was sure of his identity. It is more complex for younger generations today, in which a conflict is always going on between modernity and locality, but both of them does not always have to be at a crossroad, even they those two elements can collaborate. This standpoint is quite represented by the white shirt he wore during the first day of his screening, with an image of E.T. wearing a Philippines traditional costume, which according to him was designed by one of the indigenous tribes. Then, he concluded that the story about who we are is always an interesting story that has to be told.
The lecture that day can be concluded in a performance he did after the screening of a snippet from Balikbayan. The satirical monologue depicted a clash between the domination of Western film industry and their locality, through a theatrical performance of a young man who graduated from the University of Hollywood, who has an ambition to remake Hollywood films in the local context, but, upon the realization of his ability to actualize his locality into an original story, he started to make films about his own culture. Before, the monologue was performed after the screening of The Perfumed Nightmare. When I saw it for the first time, I was amazed by the spontaneity, from the start when he was wearing a complete set of graduation robe, until the moment he took it off, revealing his ethnical clothes of a weaved fabric that was tied up into a loincloth.
Afrizal Malna on Kidlat Tahimik’s public lecture
Through this performance, we can undertstan the map of Kidlat’s arts practice, consistently rebelling from a higher power that restrains us, be it colonialism, capitalism, criticism, educational boundaries, and rule from the government; and the reclaiming of the camera as a symbol for control of the narrative by the local people. But, this rebellion is accomplished through a delightful, childish manner. Kids still have not understood the imaginary structure created by the adults, so they explore their own way to do things, while playing along and constantly inquiring them.
Walking back from the Lounge to the guest house with Kidlat, I expressed my amazement about his works which I thought has a clear statement. His answer: “Maybe, that’s because I wasn’t trying to make a statement.” I went silent for a while, not because I ran out of things to say, but I was trying to understand what he said. Maybe, he wasn’t trying to make a statement, but he was only letting stories pour out of him. Maybe, he was just channeling his duende, and the universe was trying to talk through him. Who knows?
Kidlat Tahimik and Arkipelabor in front of ARKIPEL’s Lounge
We stopped on our way to the guest house, when Kidlat saw a political party campaign car with a picture of Soekarno and Megawati Soekarnoputri—the founding father of Indonesia and her daughter who was once a president—on it. He asked us to record him talking to the image of Soekarno, one of the things that connected him with Indonesia. On some occasions, he brought an old photo of her mother, the mayor of Baguio at the time, with Soekarno who happened to visit the town, and on that occasion, young Kidlat also met him. Standing beside the image of Soekarno on the back of the car, under the dim street light he expressed his hopes for both countries, Indonesia and Phillipines, to discover their identities so they can go beyond those big countries, with their atomic bombs and rocket ships. A big dream, which he is slowly realizing through his grounded tales.
