Unforgotten Gems

This article will mainly look at dramas and documentaries. Among nearly 270 student works, some are well executed and demonstrate the directors’ solid understanding of film structure and technique. Some may be flawed and not as polished in tone and mood, but they impress viewers with their intuition and raw energy. What we discussed most during the panel were the authors’ intentions, the directors’ attempts at and contemplations of visuals and narratives, and the criteria a student film festival should have.

Many submissions this year centre on coming-of-age experiences and school life. Some go overboard with their portrayals of emotions, resulting in works that feel forceful and unnatural. When transforming personal experiences into moving images, emotions lose their authenticity if the directors fail to translate the texture of everyday life onto the screen. When the mise-en-scene is reduced to merely serving as a background, it ceases to be a real, fluid space. 17 Years is one of the few works that manages to strike a delicate balance. The film’s texturally distinctive visual images, along with the actors’ relaxed and memorable performances, make it a poignant rumination on the detachment and suppressed passions of youth. Aside from films on growing up and family relationships, many submissions take a sharp look at the city’s complex societal problems. Melding documentary, fiction, and performance, Temporal (+) Boundary looks at the debates surrounding Hong Kong’s ongoing exodus through conversations among three women. 

Though rare, some submissions explore the aftermath and remains of the recent social movement. Before the Summer Snow imagines Hong Kong in the near future. Through the reunion of a family separated by the social movement, it reflects the collective anxiety of the present times. June and For All the Parts of Me turn to memories lingering in the streets to give voice to the city’s melancholy and despair.

The making of a documentary is sensitive to time when made in a rushed timeframe, like in an assignment or grad film, and the attitude and ways in which the filmmaker intervenes with reality lay down the foundation of the film. I’d like to specifically talk about two works that I’m fond of, Echoes of the Wave and The Last Breath. The former documents Hong Kong soccer team Kitchee’s journey to the AFC Champions League games, and captures the team’s and its fans’ hopes and regrets. Real and full of raging passion, the short tells us that failures are not to be feared; keep riding the waves, and we’ll get there someday. The latter hones in on Mabobo Communist Farm in Fanling and the farmer’s family. In the interviews and excerpts of daily life, we see glimmers of hope for a better society and the frustrations of being unable to change the status quo.

Documentaries tend to diverge from mainstream narratives – they are carriers of our memories, and a means of philosophical contemplation of reality. I hope to see more documentary submissions next year. I hope to see filmmakers stepping out of the restraints of schoolwork to keep filming and keep digging deeper, to create profound works with meanings and insight.

Though the aforementioned films did not make the final list, not being in the final round doesn’t mean that the films aren’t good enough.  Their true values are the filmmakers’ exploration and experimentation with visual aesthetics. In the suffocating times we live in, the space for dramas and documentaries is shrinking every day. Finding a new way out, new ways to look at films, new ways of filmmaking  – these are lessons that we all have to learn.

Pre-selection Juror & Award Juror Chan Hau Chun