Cover Photo: Kidlat de Guia in December 2020 editing the “Midnight. Climate Survival” video for the global campaign of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), in partnership with the Agam Agenda and Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC). Photo © Padmapani L. Perez/The Agam Agenda.
A shattering loss: cinematographer, visual artist, and photographer Kidlat de Guia passed away yesterday, March 9. He was 47 and is survived by his wife Lissa, their son Kalinaw, and daughter Amihan.
With Agam Agenda’s Padmapani L. Perez, Kidlat helped produce the short international video Midnight. Climate. Survival which was the final creative expression in 2020 of the 55-government strong Climate Vulnerable Forum’s (CVF) global campaign to persuade countries to raise their climate ambition. We grieve with Padma, who considered Kidlat her twin brother, and we grieve with Kidlat’s siblings Kabunyan and Kawayan, and his parents, National Artist for Film Kidlat Tahimik, and cultural activist Katrin de Guia.
Kidlat was deeply loved by so many. To write about him in the past tense is painful. To say Kidlat and Padma were close is an incredible understatement. Padma and Kidlat grew up together and like the closest of kin quarreled, laughed, cried, loved, and experienced much of life together.
Padma worked with Kidlat and other colleagues such as Luisa A. Igloria, Gawani Domogo Gaongen, Marjorie Evasco, and María Faciolince to produce the Midnight video as an expression of their commonly held hope: to draw in poets, artists, and communities everywhere to re-assemble, reimagine, and fight to bring about a kinder future for all amidst the worsening climate crisis. We post this again in remembrance of Kidlat, and as a reminder to ourselves that our work is far from done and that however difficult the challenges ahead are, we must persist.
Montage by Kidlat de Guia.
