A programme that explores Hong Kong experimental videos made over the last decade.
Taking a look at Hong Kong and its people over the pivotal years, the programme addresses themes of identity and sense of place, public and personal histories and estrangement and desire
1. Tomato School
Dir Lam Ho-yin, Benjamin, 2006 Col DV 3min58sec
This project is about “everyday life”. The possibility of accelerating the definition of a school, the possibility of creating ‘Everyday Architecture’ that belong to everyone, from the beginning to the end. The school was a proposal for a multimedia firm called ‘Tomato’. The confusion or the shifting between these identities: ‘Street’, ‘Stage’ and ‘School’ is what this specific space made up of. There is no clear identity. Occupants ‘perform’ different actions on the street, to accelerate the idea of a stage and at the same time having ‘conversations’ with each other to create the school.
2. Goodbye
Dir Mak Hoi-shan, Anson, 2006 Col/B&W Archival footage (16mm)/Super 8 film/DV Stereo 8min, Music by Fan Hung A
Hong Kong is now in danger of losing our local history related to space. Hugh renewal plan has started. The historical Star Ferry Pier in Central has been demolished. This is peril. Along with the poetic lyrics and beautiful music of Fan Hung A, we hope to render a platform to raise the related questions on the disappearance of cityscape. The “major” cast of this film is Victoria Harbour. It is an icon for Hong Kong that needs to be redefined from the reflections of personal history to grand history.
Hong Kong born Anson Mak Hoi-Shan is a writer, blogger, phonographer, film/video artist and a cultural critic. At present, she is studying a Fine Art Doctorate at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University and working in Hong Kong on research projects and teaching – in universities and community centres. Her works were screened in local and overseas festivals in Japan, Taiwan, Norway, Spain, Australia, Singapore and USA. www.aahsun.com
3. The Chronicle of a Drawing; the Footprints of Time
Dir Wong Cheuk-hin, George, 2006 Col DV 9mins 43secs
This project is a continuity of previous experimentations which focused on the metaphysical and yet tangible qualities of time. By taking the visual representations to the other extreme of computer graphics, the work quite literally portrays time’s intrinsic quality to encapsulate space, story and memory. The longing for one to preserve fabrics of time is perhaps a knee-jerk reaction to see vernacular spaces, activities and identities being erased without footprints in my dear city. Through this work, one hopes to share one’s belief that the past isn’t a stumbling block but a stepping-stone for the future.
4. Still
Dir Poon Yick-sum, 2003 Col/B&W DV 20mins
It was the spring of 2004 in Hong Kong. Just before a time when a new virus – SARS – was to shake up the world.
The story is about a woman living in Hong Kong during SARS. On the surface, nothing seems to be wrong and nobody feels life is any different than any other time. But something is wrong. She cannot see or is not willing to see, but it is there. She can feel it in the surrounding streets, buildings and discarded city wastes. She begins to act strangely; drinking polluted seawater, burning money. In the end, she might live or she might die. This could be the situation for most of us as well even now. http://stillthemovie.50webs.com/main.html
Poon Yick Sum is an award winning (Golden Horse Award for Best Art Direction and Costume Design) Hong Kong filmmaker whose credits include ORDINARY HEROES (1998) and LOVE WILL TEAR US APART (1999).
5. A Wishing Well Under The Not A Big Blue Sky
Dir Mak Hoi-shan, Anson, 2005 Col Super 8 USA 6min
“I went to downtown LA by train and metro instead of driving because I had panic attacks driving on the highways. This is the biggest irony to live in LA. I shot the landscape from the train during the trips. I then rework them together with the soundscape I’ve got from the wishing well in China Town.”
A WISHING WELL UNDER THE NOT A BIG BLUE SKY aims to de-stereotype Californian life. That wishing well, carries so many deep wishes and desires of individuals, call for references of my innermost thoughts, as a foreigner living in the US.
6. Où est la sortie?
Dir Tsang Tsui Shan, 2007 Hong Kong HDV Col 29mins
(In Cantonese, Putonghua & French with Chinese & English subtitles)
It all started with a mysterious place called ‘Feng dan bai lu”. For a sentimental Chinese girl, Paris is full of poetry and romance. She imagines herself as an Indian from the Wild West wandering through the big city, listening to her subconscious speak French. After she meets a waiter on a trottinette and a UFO in a bright red shirt, where does the fantasy end and reality begin?
Tsang Tsui Shan graduated from the School of Film & TV of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts in 2001. She then enrolled in the MA Media Design Technology at City University of Hong Kong. Her first narrative short LONELY PLANET won the Silver Award at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Awards (ifva) 2004. She also works across other art form, ALL ABOUT MY VILLAGE being her first web based art work.
With thanks to Teresa Kwong, Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Awards, HKAC and Chinese Arts Centre.