Renowned for surreal bullet ballets and saccharine melodramas, the once-vital Hong Kong film industry is now finding it difficult to maintain its originality. This diverse program of films—some winners from the 1996 Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards—confirms that a wealth of talent still exists and that the future of Hong Kong cinema may lie with the independents. TRT: 77 mins

Hong Kong, 1996, 15 mins, video, b&w, Cantonese w/e.s.;

Director Rita HUI Nga Shu

In a claustrophobic Hong Kong apartment, a distracted Ah Ming resorts to a shocking escape from the pressures of family and school.

Director YUEN Kin To

With references to hyperkinetic shoe commercials and Otomo Katsuhiro’s MEMORIES, this animated short pits one boy against evil soccer aliens in the match of a lifetime.

Director Simon CHUNG

Kevin and his expat friend James are typical disaffected youth cruising the city. When Kevin finds out he is being sent to boarding school in England, however, he realizes that his feelings for his one true love may go unrequited.

Director YU Lik Wai

Three provincial girls try to make a future in modern Beijing. An accomplished singer, Yu Guin works as a bar hostess, but longs for a nostalgic past. Hu Jin meets continual failure and misfortune as a model and actress. Zun Ji is an erratic and rebellious former junkie making herself a name as a "dancing queen" at Beijing discos. With remarkable honesty, this documentary captures the personal price of urban survival in mainland China.

—Brian Lau

The history of independent filmmaking in Hong Kong is short and uneven. It sort of started in the mid-1960s, saw its heyday in the second half of the 1970s and disappeared in the 1980s, only to emerge and flourish in 1993 with renewed energy. The main reason for its much-delayed development is the lack of support from the government. There are cinephiles aplenty, they like to watch and make movies, but they do not have the resources.

In the mid-1960s, a group of cinephiles set up a film club called College Cine Club, named after the magazine they published. From sporadically screening "art films," they proceeded to make 16mm films. However, only a few of them could afford the cost and it remained an activity among friends.

The emergence of Super-8 in the 1970s changed the scene. A new film club, the Phoenix Cine Club, founded by me and nine other cinephiles, began to arrange public screenings. We also put out a film journal and organized Super-8 production classes providing cameras and editing machines to the members. In the mid-1970s we took over from a group, Film Guard, organizing the annual experimental film competition which started two years earlier. With enthusiastic promotion from Phoenix, the competition grew in size every year and reached a climax in the late 1970s with over 50 entries. Some of the winners in the competition later became directors in the industry.

The fading out of Super-8 in the 1980s brought independent filmmaking to a stop and Phoenix Cine Club also became inactive. Towards the end of the 1980s home video began to emerge. Hong Kong also became an affluent society, so home video became affordable to many people. I saw the huge creative force in home videomaking. In order to tap into this force, I founded a media centre at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in 1992 to provide 16mm and video editing facilities and classes. At the same time I set up the Hong Kong Independent Film and Video Awards to encourage people making video. Quite a number of people joined and the size of the competition increased the next year. In 1995, we collaborated with the Urban Council, a government body dealing with cultural matters. With new resources from the council we were able to give big prizes and organize more workshops and classes. 1996 was the watershed for us. That year, the government began to give out grants for the making and development of independent film and video. We proposed a 5-year plan to turn the media centre into a full-fledged place for indies to meet, have more editing equipment, suites and classes, set up a data bank and an archive, get help with distribution, and organize outreach projects—like organizing workshops for communities. Our plan was granted, and we expanded the media centre in 1997. With the help of the media centre, IFVA thrived. Entries increased from a few dozen to nearly 300 and promising indies began to emerge. We promoted their works to overseas festivals and some of them began to establish contacts themselves. It seems that the independent scene is growing steadily and healthily. Last year we began to promote teenagers making videos, with exciting results.

Choi Kam Chuen
Director
Film and Video Department
Hong Kong Arts Centre