Redefining Hong Kong: Portraits Over Time

opening gala: If we burn (UK PREMIERE)

血在燒（英國首映）

James Leong, Lynn Lee / hong kong

Summer 2019. Hong Kong’s leaderless pro-democracy movement stuns Beijing and captures the world’s attention. ‘If We Burn’ is an urgent, immersive journey into the protests, and a meditation on what it means to resist.

closing gala: the Grass is greener on the other side

野草不盡

Hongkongers, still living in the aftermath of the 2019 protests, are leaving by the thousands to the UK to forge a free future.

Following the journey of Hong Kong migrants, the film explores the tension between their identity and role in a modern society. Through intimate observations, the film cuts through the smoke and fire of the 2019 protests to reveal the current state of post-trauma in Hong Kong, and offers a glimpse into its possible futures. What will become of Hongkongers in a foreign land? Can they break free from the past? Where can they truly find home?

Crystal WONG / Hong Kong, United Kingdom

Say I Do to Me (UK PREMIERE)

1人婚禮（英國首映）

kiwi chow / hong kong

“I want to marry myself! To plan for a solo wedding, to marry myself, to declare my forever love for myself to the world!” Attractive comedienne Ping vows to become a viral Youtuber. She concocts a plan to put on a show of marrying herself in what was meant to secure both money and likes. In this satire of marriage and the individual self, nothing is left untouched: women, men, organised religion, homosexuality, the filthy rich, not to mention ye good old mother! Love yourself in Say I do to me, won’t you?

Short Film Programme: Post Apocalyptic Hong Kong

短片集：現實超現實

Depths of Night 極夜 / Step C / hong kong

Walk Along The Wall 十二點前我要返屋企 (UK PREMIERE 英國首映) / Kin-pong IEONG / Hong kong

Lost Pearl 失城 (UK PREMIERE 英國首映) / Steve LI / Hong Kong

Time, and Time Again (World Premiere 世界首映) / Asgard WONG / hong kong

THAT SPRING, IN THE SKY OF H-VILLE, THERE WAS ____ 那年春天，H城的天空上出現了＿＿ / Chung Hong IU / hong kong

Post Apocalyptic Hong Kong is a series of 5 short films reimagining the city in a dark and dangerous light. Cast in the shadows of the anti-extradition protests and the pandemic, the future, infinitely fraught, hangs in the balance. Questions of histories, humanity, and freedom are launched to the forefront in this examination of the unknown.

Twilight’s Kiss

叔·叔

Ray YEUNG / Hong kong

PAK is a hardworking taxi driver who refuses to retire. A grandfather in a family with strong social values and firm Confucius beliefs, he belongs in a striking snapshot of a conventional Hong Kong family. HOI, a retired and divorced Christian who lives with his only son and his family, struggles to find belonging in his own home. 

PAK and HOI harbour the same secret - they are both gay. A chance encounter draws these two grandfathers together. Torn between love and tradition, they must choose what they ultimately want in the final years of their lives – their true yearning for each other or their traditional ‘happy’ family life.

Keep Rolling

好好拍電影

On a buzzing red carpet, a 70-year-old short-haired woman strides towards the stage with confidence. Behind the red carpet, it’s a muddy path that leads to a movie studio in New Territories, Hong Kong. To her, glory and hardship are nothing more than just different paths that lead to the world of cinema.

40 years have passed, Ann Hui has experienced numerous ups and downs in her career, but the turn of the tide has never threatened her dedication and integrity towards movies. Her works embody her humanistic concerns and deep interests for the people of Hong Kong. On the lonely journey of discovery, her life is now full because of movies.

Man Lim CHUNG / hong kong

Sub-section : Resistance, Reenacted

blue island (Parallel Screening with The Battle of Orgreave)

憂鬱之島

Tze Woon CHAN / Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan

The film documents three real-life characters across time engaging in rebellions (during the Cultural Revolution, during the 1967 riot and during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre) when they were young. Through reconstructing these events, the film dramatises their scarred memories and experiences by interlinking their stories with four young people who have participated in the 2019 Anti-extradition Law Amendment Movement in Hong Kong. Although these protagonists are separated by time and history, their lives parallel and overlap with each other as they find themselves swimming in similar chaotic predicaments.

The Battle of Orgreave (Parallel Screening with Blue island)

歐格里夫抗爭事件

Dir: Mike Figgis / Artist: jeremy Deller / United kingdom

In 1984 the National Union of Mineworkers went on strike. The dispute lasted for over a year and was the most bitterly fought since the general strike of 1926. On 18 June that year, the Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire was the site of one of the most violent confrontations, which culminated in a cavalry charge through the village.

 Jeremy Deller’s The Battle of Orgreave, staged seventeen years later, was a spectacular re-enactment of what happened that day. Orchestrated by Howard Giles, a historical re-enactment expert, it involved more than 800 participants, including former miners and policemen, reliving the events that they themselves took part in.

 The Battle of Orgreave, filmed by Mike Figgis for Artangel and Channel 4, first aired on 20 October 2002. The film intercuts dramatic photographs from the clashes in 1984 with footage of the reenactment in 2001 and powerful testimonies to tease out the complexities of this bitter struggle.