Golden Scene Selection – August
Golden Scene and Hong Kong Arts Centre proudly present “Golden Scene Selection”, showcasing the cherry-picked selections from around the world and bringing outstanding films to the audience at Hong Kong Arts Centre Cinema.
Venue: Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre
Date: 2021.08.25 – 2021.08.28
Price: Standard ticket: $80.
Screening Schedule
25/8 (Wed) 8pm Collective
26/8 (Thu) 8pm Dad, I'm Sorry
27/8 (Fri) 8pm Collective
28/8 (Sat) 2:15pm The Great Buddha+
28/8 (Sat) 4:30pm Classmates Minus
Collective
Director: Alexander NanauRomania, Luxembourg | 2019 | 109' | In Romanian and English with Chinese and English subtitles | DCP | Colour
25/8 (Wed) 8pm
27/8 (Fri) 8pm
In 2015, a fire at Bucharest's Colectiv club leaves 27 dead and 180 injured. Soon, more burn victims begin dying in hospitals from wounds that were not life-threatening. Then a doctor blows the whistle to a team of investigative journalists. One revelation leads to another as the journalists start to uncover vast health care fraud. When a new health minister is appointed, he offers unprecedented access to his efforts to reform the corrupt system but also to the obstacles he faces. Following journalists, whistle-blowers, burn victims, and government officials, Collective is an uncompromising look at the impact of investigative journalism at its best.
Dad, I'm Sorry
Director: Tran Thanh, Vu Ngoc DangCast: Tran Thanh, Ngoc Giau, Le Giang, La Thanh, Tuan TranVietnam | 2021 | 128' | In Vietnamese with Chinese and English subtitles | DCP | Colour
26/8 (Thu) 8pm
Dad, I'm sorry is the story of Ba Sang – the second of the 4 noisy siblings: Giau, Sang, Phu, Quy who is a meddler, “too” kind and always sacrifice for others despite they want it or not. Quan – Ba Sang's son is a modern young Youtuber. Quan loves his father and baby sister but in a rough way. Witnessing his father and baby sister are bullied, Quan often fight with Ba Sang. Continuous fights between father and son have led to a cracking relationship. Each generation has its own way of thinking. Are you sure you have stepped into others' shoes before walking? The movie gives us a multifaceted perspective about family through destinies of each characters and the way they lead their lives
The Great Buddha+
Director: Hsin-yao HuangCast: Cres Chuang, Bamboo Chen, Leon DaiTaiwan | 2017 | 104' | In Mandarin, Taiwanese and English with Chinese and English subtitles | DCP | Colour & B&W
28/8 (Sat) 2:15pm
Pickle is a night security guard at a bronze statue factory, who also plays in a band at the funerals when time allows. Earning a meager income, Pickle lives with his elderly mother. His best friend Belly Button works as a recycling collector during the day, and Pickle's biggest pleasure in life is flicking through the porn magazines Belly Button collects in the small hours in the security room. Having late night snacks and watching television are an integral part of their dull lives. One day when the television is broken, their lives are changed forever. At first, they watch the footages recorded on their boss's dash cam for fun, and soon they get addicted to peeping into the boss's colorful private life and accidently discover the boss's unspeakable secret. As a result, a ridiculous chain reaction is triggered, and even the statue of Buddha, ready to be sent to the religious festival, is forced to play a role in this chaotic situation.
Classmates Minus
Director: Hsin-yao HuangCast: Cheng Jen-Shuo, Liu Kuan-Ting, Na Dow, Shih Ming-ShuaiTaiwan | 2020 | 122' | In Mandarin and Taiwanese with Chinese and English subtitles | DCP | Colour
28/8 (Sat) 4:30pm
This is a story about four high school classmates. The storylines are intertwined with one another. Here are a middle-aged director who is frustrated with his undiscovered talents, a hard-working white-collar worker who is depressed about his lack of achievement, an idle part-timer at the Household Registration Office who is hesitant about love, and a paper offering maker who is able to communicate with the dead but doesn't know why. This is not some film with important moral lessons. This is a film with the following central theme – life is just so fucking ridiculous!
Tickets are now available at PUTYOURSELF.in
Here We Are. Here We Go.: Swiss Documentaries on Adolescence
The world is in the midst of a seismic shift, and the human race is experiencing and learning about life, society and culture anew. In this time of history, we have discovered greater divides among people from different backgrounds much more than we were aware of. How to deal with differences and changes? How can we come to terms with challenges? How do we place ourselves in the world?
“Here We Are. Here We Go.: Swiss Documentaries on Adolescence” celebrates the human spirit for survival and hope by looking into how adolescents and their families from different backgrounds feel, contemplate and tackle difficulties – how they develop their mental stamina and coping mechanism and find their place in the world. People from all walks of life form a universal tension that drives where the world is marching towards. Youngsters are our future, and how adults enlighten them to love and resolve discrepancies is their future. These unusual and intimate stories of growing up from different parts of the world will inspire us about a thing or two.
Screening Schedule:
29/8 (Sun) 8pm* Sapelo
30/8 (Mon) 8pm* Under the Skin
*With online after-screening talk. Conducted in English.
Sapelo by Nick Brandestini
Switzerland｜2020｜92 mins｜HD｜Colour｜In English with English subtitles
Two young brothers, JerMarkest (11) and Johnathan (10), are growing up on the picturesque and isolated barrier island of Sapelo. Accompanied by their adoptive 70-something year old mother, Cornelia, they experience the joy of exploring the island under her loving care.
Sapelo was once a destination for slave traders, and became a sanctuary for those freed after the American civil war. It is also the last remaining enclave of the Saltwater Geechee people, which are originally from West Africa. Cornelia works to preserve what remains of this unique community established by her ancestors. Reflecting on the complicated splendour of her youth, Cornelia strives to shepherd her sons through theirs. At the dawn of adolescence, the brothers inherit her hope, but begin to clash with each other and the wider world.
Under the Skin / Sous la peau by Robin Harsch
Switzerland｜2019｜85 mins｜HD｜Colour｜ In French with English subtitles
Because Robin Harsch's friend was starting an organisation for young people who were LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or questioning), he became curious and started filming an unfamiliar topic. With great sensitivity and openness, Harsh took two years to film three trans teenagers – Soän, Logan and Mixair/Effie Alexandra – along the road towards transition and the conquest of a desired identity. The film tackles delicate gender issues, and allow those directly affected by these matters to express their truth. Faced with the oppression of heteronormative society which thinks in generally sterile and binary terms, it takes these protagonists determination, strength and courage to be themselves. They “encourage us to hope and believe in a society where all of the finer nuances of humanity can be expressed and enjoyed without sterile and dangerous prejudices.”
Tickets are now available on Hong Kong Movie.
The Body and the City
A woman travels from her small German town to Hong Kong to find her son in the metropolis. A group of actors gets involved in the democracy movement in Minsk, goes together to the mass demonstrations to fight for free elections: Experiences that a person makes individually or collectively, when he moves in a city shape him, they leave traces. These experiences inscribe themselves in the body's memory, as in an archive of personal and collective memory. The series THE BODY AND THE CITY presents films that deal with the physical and social experience of powerlessness or empowerment, of exclusion or community, that people make in the urban space.
Venue: Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre
Date: 2021.09.07 – 2021.09.15
Time: 8pm
Price: Standard ticket: $80.
Screening schedule
7/9 (Tue) 8pm Wood and Water*
8/9 (Wed) 8pm What If We Say “Yes!” to Our Body + bodyRealities: cityCodes*
9/9 (Thu) 8pm Many Undulating Things*
10/9 (Fri) 8pm Courage*
15/9 (Wed) 8pm DEFA Documentary Series: Leipzig in the Fall + The Wall*with after-screening talk (conducted in English)
Wood and Water
Director: Jonas BakGermany, France | 2021 | 80' | In Cantonese, English, German with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
7/9 (Tue) 8pm
Newly retired from her church job in the Black Forest, Anke dreamt of spending the summer holidays together with her grown-up children on the Baltic coast. However, her son Max, who lives in Hong Kong, cancels at short notice due to the ongoing pro-democracy protests. Feeling empty, Anke decides to fly to Hong Kong to see her son and to explore the city. Conversations with strangers gradually help Anke to break down the inner walls she constructed years ago and make way for a new chapter in her life.
What If We Say “Yes!” to Our Body + bodyRealities: cityCodes
Both Mimi LO Performing Arts Development Foundation and DIN A 13 tanzcompany are committed to encourage people of different abilities to explore and express themselves through dance. They believe inclusive dance can bring people closer and build a more inclusive society.
8/9 (Wed) 8pm
What If We Say “Yes!” to Our Body
Director: Mimi LoHong Kong | 2021 | 33' | In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles | DCP | Colour
WHAT IF WE SAY “YES!” TO OUR BODY shares Mimi Lo's more than 20 years of dance experience – from body to mind – to illustrate the special relationship between her dance studies and the unique city of Hong Kong. Facing the many “no's” in the city – “No trespassing”, “No lying on the benches”, “No climbing” – bodies are forced to internalise those limitations. Whether it is possible to dance, is it a mere physical condition, or is it decided by the voice that says “no” in our mind?
bodyRealities: cityCodes
Director: Miriam Jakobs, Gerhard SchickGermany, Ghana | 2017 | 53' | HD | Colour
bodyRealities – cityCodes deals with the complex structures of the ghanaian capital Accra and its inhabitants. In the urban areas of the sprawling city, slum settlements extend along the modernised city; the values and products of globalization seem unattainable for a majority of the population behind the shiny glass façades. The mixed-abled dance performance manifests the interweaving forces of space, memories and politics on one's body.
Many Undulating Things
Director: Lu Pan, Bo WangUSA, South Korea, Hong Kong | 2019 | 125' | In English, Cantonese, Mandarin with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
MANY UNDULATING THINGS is a visual exploration on the nature and spatial politics in Hong Kong through attempts to discover possibilities of comparing patterns, motivations, and narratives of global cultural and commercial exchanges between now and then. It renders perceptions on issues of spatial justice, population flow, class conflicts, environmental issues, and ultimately explores cities in relation to global capitalist economy and social segregation.
Courage
Director: Aliaksei PaluyanGermany | 2021 | 90' | In Belarusian, Russian with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
Belarus, Summer 2020: people walked onto the streets of Minsk, protesting for freedom of speech and the long-waited change of power. Yet the people's voice is brutally crushed by the regime, and the country is on the brink of civil war. COURAGE accompanies three actors from an underground theatre during the protests, providing a close and gripping sight to the courageous and peaceful fight for freedom and democracy.
DEFA Documentary Series: Leipzig in the Fall + The Wall
Leipzig in the Fall (Leipzig im Herbst)
Director: Gerd Kroske, Andreas VoigtEast Germany | 1989 | 50' | In German with English subtitles | HD | B&W On October 16, 1989, more than 100,000 people gathered in Leipzig, seeking for democratic development in East Germany. Two directors, Kroske and Voigt, finally got the permission of the state-owned film studio to document the historical events; they were the only professional team filming in Leipzig. The film includes interviews with demonstrators, advocates, officials and bystanders, and offers the most comprehensive documentation of events surrounding the 1989 Monday demonstrations in Leipzig.
The Wall (Die Mauer)
Director: Jürgen BöttcherEast Germany | 1989/90 | 98' | In German with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
On the final days of the fall of Berlin Wall, memorable motion-picture footages were projected onto the crumbling walls: from Emperor Wilhelm's ride through the Brandenburg Gate, the torch-lit procession of the Nazis, to footage of an East German soldier jumping over the Wall. A poetic documentary by painter and filmmaker Jürgen Böttcher who captures the enigmatic imagery against the acoustic backdrop of curious masses of people and a relentless media, contemplating the Berlin Wall's historic and symbolic significance.
Tickets are now available at POPTICKET.hk
New Waves, New Shores: Busan International Film Festival
Presented by the Hong Kong Arts Centre, co-curated by Maggie Lee, film critic and curator, and Nam Dong-chul, Programme Director of the Busan International Film Festival, this moving image programme demonstrates the long-standing mutual influence between the two places. Overseas and local guests will meet the audience at after-screening chats and thematic talks. Heavyweight Korean screenwriter, Jeong Seo-kyeong, a long-time collaborator with internationally renowned Korean director, Park Chan-wook, will join us for a screenwriting masterclass and a workshop.
Venue: Louis Koo Cinema & Eric Hotung Studio, Hong Kong Arts Centre
Date: 2021.11.25 – 2022.01.14
Price: Ticketing starts in October.
Details to be announced in October 2021.
Presented by: Hong Kong Arts CentreFinancially Supported by: Film Development Fund, Create Hong KongFestival Partner: Busan International Film Festival
