Award-winning filmmaker and film historian Nick Deocampo received the surprise of a lifetime when National Artist Kidlat Tahimik personally presented him with the Bamboo Camera Award.

On his Facebook account, Deocampo described the recognition as a “rare honor,” noting that “Kidlat is known to receive awards (and he has lots of them!) but he is not known to be a donor of some himself.”

The surprise took place on 21 June during the screening of Deocampo’s films in Baguio.

“He stood up and announced that he was handing the Bamboo Camera Award to me. I must be the first recipient of Kidlat’s award as he says it came as an instantaneous gesture. (Come to think of it, all of Kidlat’s creative works are guided by cosmic forces!) I was lucky to receive the Bamboo Camera Award, a rarely-given prize to someone only Kidlat knows why he is giving away the bamboo-crafted prize,” Deocampo recalled.

Deocampo said Kidlat Tahimik explained that the “award is a symbol of what he espouses as a form of independence and vision that a filmmaker keeps.”

“He recalled how we have been together in our struggle for creative space in Philippine cinema—with both our independent and alternative film forms,” Deocampo said, adding that the recognition came “at a time when, in a twist of irony, he offered to give up his National Artist Award in protest over CHED’s descaling of the academic curriculum.”

For Deocampo, the Bamboo Camera Award is “among the most treasured recognitions I ever received—from someone who I consider a genuine artist and a giant of Philippine cinema.”