It was in 2004, on February 15, that the house in Tuding owned by the film maker, and Philippine National Artist Kidlat Tahimik burned down.

We were having a party the night before at my cousin’s place Salud, named after our grandmother. Some of us carried the party back to Tuding, a precariously built architectural wonder of a house, made up up of salvaged trees, driftwood, cement, full of paintings, tapestries, sculptures, films, and indigenous treasures from the North. I partied til about 5am, and as I was wont to do, I went back home. A few hours later I receive a text : 

‘Tuding is burning’ read a text from Kawayan on my phone.

I arrived at Tuding and found Kawayan and the artist Rene Aquitania. They had partied on with the rest, passed out and woke up to the fire. Beams were falling as they found their way out. A neighbour helped carry Jambalaya, his yellow VW combi, away from the fire in case it exploded. He was in shock. They couldn’t find the cat. I was still wearing last nights clothes and found in my pocket a camera. It had a single roll of 35 mm film with 24 shots. I was taking snapshots of the party the night before. The roll read 25. Feeling at a loss, I rewound it, and started taking photographs.