00:00 If your father is a military fascist.
00:05 "Son, what's 2+2?"
00:09 "Huh? 2+2 is 5!"
00:12 "Huh? I told you it's not 5!"
00:15 You know the concept I used for Duende?
00:27 It's kind of a metaphor.
00:29 We often talk about the Duende of the woods,
00:33 the Duende of the river,
00:35 or the Duende of the mountains.
00:36 It's a colonial word from Spanish.
00:38 But it's really part of our language.
00:42 So Duende for me is like an energy,
00:45 like a force that comes from within.
00:48 Usually when there are young artists,
00:51 filmmakers, painters,
00:55 who ask me, "Oh, sensei, what's your secret?"
01:01 It's not because I studied here,
01:06 or some prestigious place,
01:08 or I was under some great mentor.
01:12 Duende for me is our creativity,
01:17 our language that can only be original
01:20 because it comes from within.
01:25 What do I mean by this?
01:27 For me, Duende is a product.
01:30 Your own Duende is really a unique entity
01:34 that frames the world.
01:36 Your Duende will have that frame,
01:38 whatever shape it is,
01:40 nobody else can have.
01:41 If your Duende is free,
01:45 this is the combination of,
01:47 for me, two strong influences.
01:51 Where you grew up, or how you grew up,
01:54 that's the first influence,
01:55 your personal upbringing.
01:56 It can influence later on,
01:59 how you see the world.
02:01 So, just as an example,
02:03 it's my favorite example,
02:04 if your father is a military fascist,
02:09 "Son, what's 2+2?"
02:13 "Huh? 2+2 is 5!"
02:16 "Huh? I said it's not 5!"
02:19 If that's your first influence,
02:22 it's going to affect the way you look at the world
02:25 and how you interact with the world.
02:27 I mean, compared to, let's say,
02:29 if your father was a very gentle theater artist,
02:34 "Son, maybe 2+2?"
02:38 "Let's see if 5 is the right answer,
02:40 or we'll go."
02:41 So, these kinds of early influences
02:45 are one factor.
02:46 The other factor is your overall cultural influence.
02:51 So, if you grew up in a village,
02:54 let's say, like Forbes Park Village,
02:57 you look at it differently
02:58 compared to if you grew up in a culture of,
03:01 let's say, an Ifugao village.
03:02 So, if you see somebody walking on the street
03:05 wearing a bag, like me,
03:07 if you're a college student,
03:10 if you ride every day in a Mercedes-Benz
03:13 and you only see Makati,
03:15 you see a kid walking along the street,
03:23 that's your framing.
03:24 "Wow! Tweet, tweet!"
03:28 But if you grew up in a village
03:30 where every day, there's someone wearing a bag,
03:33 and the use of the bag
03:36 also shows the personality of the person,
03:39 you take it as a normal thing,
03:41 your reaction is different.
03:42 So, your framing is affected
03:44 mainly by those two things.
03:46 Because of that,
03:46 you have a very special Duende framing.
03:50 And as an artist,
03:51 that's what I tell young indie filmmakers,
03:54 find your own Duende.
03:56 Don't be a copycat.
03:57 After 400 years of colonization,
04:00 it's easy to become a copycat culture.
04:02 You want to be the Disney of the Philippines.
04:04 You want to be the Beatles of the Philippines
04:08 or the Picasso of the Philippines.
04:10 But we're good at it.
04:13 Why don't we look inside our own bag?
04:16 Because your Duende framing is already there.
04:20 It's already inside.
04:21 And that will be your storyline in your film.
04:24 That will be your framing in your canvas
04:27 or in your novel you're going to write.
04:30 That to me is the easiest way
04:32 I can share it with young people.
04:34 Find your Duende,
04:35 that unique, creative entity inside of you.
04:39 And take care of it, nurture it.
04:41 Then write your play,
04:42 make your film,
04:43 or do your book.
04:44 And I think the world is waiting for that.
04:46 Raising a family is a big challenge.
04:50 And again,
04:51 maybe you can do it the mainstream way
04:54 or you can follow the footsteps of the old.
04:58 But I said,
05:00 "Straying on track."
05:01 I grew up in a family where
05:03 my father was a member of the Rotary Club,
05:06 my mother was the head of the Girl Scouts.
05:07 I was taught at Maryknoll School.
05:11 I was good at English when I was a little boy.
05:14 If I followed that track,
05:16 maybe my children would have done an MBA.
05:19 I don't know.
05:20 All my sons are artists.
05:23 I think that's why you asked the question.
05:25 Aside from hearing what I was talking about,
05:28 finding your own Duende and nurturing it
05:30 as against being a copycat.
05:32 First of all,
05:33 maybe because I wanted my children to be my friends.
05:36 My father was a son of a generation.
05:39 It was a hierarchy.
05:41 My eldest son, Kidlat,
05:43 would play with my cameras.
05:45 He'd say,
05:46 "Hey, your cameras are holier than thou."
05:49 "No, don't touch it."
05:50 So they learned to shoot with a bamboo camera.
05:54 To shoot with our local eyes.
05:58 To tell a story from a local point of view
06:02 and not what the formula tells you.
06:04 I taught them in public schools
06:07 here in Sped, Baguio.
06:10 There was a People Power Rally in 1986.
06:15 They were in grade school.
06:16 There was a People Power Rally.
06:19 I joined them.
06:20 You learn a lot more out here
06:22 than memorizing hecacy books in school.
06:27 Because I was working on myself.
06:29 Decolonizing myself.
06:31 I wanted to change the concept of parenthood
06:34 and the generation of my parents.
06:37 And to give freedom to my children's twins.
06:40 Maybe,
06:42 even if my intention is conscious or not,
06:45 that's the goal of my fatherhood.
06:50 As a matter of fact,
06:51 you probably heard this,
06:52 when I was teaching film courses in UP,
06:56 the last thing I said at the end of the semester was,
06:59 "Okay kids, whatever we learned this semester,
07:03 whether it's technical or artistic
07:06 or how to mix a film story,
07:10 there's only one thing I want you to remember
07:11 at the end of the semester.
07:13 That Gilat Tahimik is a father
07:15 and a filmmaker in that order."
07:18 My priority is my fatherhood.
07:20 My career as a filmmaker is only secondary.
07:23 And I think it's,
07:25 in everything we do,
07:27 if we know our priorities,
07:29 I think we will not abuse our capacity as creative people
07:40 because we have a sense of responsibility to our audiences.
07:44 Maybe that's the kind of thought I have
07:48 that I passed on to them because they are my friends.
07:51 So I'm quite proud now to make it short.
07:55 As long as I let them be,
07:57 I avoided the usual dictum of my parents,
08:00 "Huh? You're going to do fine arts?
08:02 You'll just starve, don't do that.
08:03 Just do your MBA."
08:06 And especially the "Bahala na" philosophy that I picked up.
08:10 Just remember, "Bahala na" was framed by the foreigners
08:13 as a negative value.
08:15 "Bahala na."
08:16 But I think, in my opinion,
08:19 "Bahala na" is like,
08:21 "I don't have anything else to do, I'll just do it."
08:23 Or like Phantomad,
08:25 "Bahala na, I'll just wait for the banana to fall.
08:28 I have nothing else to do."
08:31 These kinds of negative framing of letting,
08:37 you let your thoughts and events interplay in your life.
08:44 I think "Bahala na" came from "Bathala na."
08:48 "Bathala na" is,
08:49 "Do everything you need to do.
08:51 You use your brain, you use your brawn,
08:55 you do whatever you have to do,
08:57 and then the final outcome,
09:00 "Bathala na."
09:02 You're humble enough to say,
09:05 "Okay, wherever my film or my work goes,
09:09 "Bathala na."
09:11 But it also means,
09:13 "You'll do everything you need to do
09:15 so it goes in your direction."
09:19 It is a proactive word.
09:21 So maybe that's what I passed on to my children.
09:24 Maybe if I became a banker on Wall Street,
09:26 their growth would be different.
09:29 My child-rearing would be different.
09:31 And I have to thank my wife a lot for that.
09:34 When I met Kathryn,
09:35 she catalyzed my becoming an artist,
09:39 which maybe I passed on to my kids.
09:42 Kathryn was part of the new generation in Germany
09:46 that was very much against the fascistic ways
09:50 of World War II.
09:53 She was born in 1950, right after the war.
09:56 And I'm happy that my children's dwendes are kicking and alive.
10:01 They're all crazy creators.
10:06 Well, if they want to become a banker one day,
10:09 what can I do?
10:10 But at least,
10:10 I think in that way,
10:16 So that's a little way of culture-bearing.
10:22 I'm aware that I don't want my parents to be strict with me.
10:31 But to be playful,
10:32 to let it flow,
10:35 I think, wow, full of surprises.
10:40 But hell on earth.
10:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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