Hong Kong (short films)

Abstract

COMING-OF-AGE OF HONG KONG'S INDEPENDENT SHORT FILMS An interesting phenomenon as a result of Hong Kong's handover to China in 1997 was a profusion of innovative short films by young directors who worked mostly in video. Their "shoot-on-the-run" films, made on shoestring budgets, documented the anxieties and opinions of the ordinary Hong Konger about the colony's return to the mainland. Ten of these shorts, ranging from 5 to 30 minutes, were shown at the 22nd Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) in 1998 under the title 'Digital Biography of Hong Kong, Progams I & II'. The 'digital diaries', as these videos were called, were commissioned by the Japanese producer Mio Hani and Stella Sze. Program I offered Howard Cheng's fragmented, two-part, experimental video, The Daily Mood of Final Certainty or The House of August, about 5 characters. Leung Ping-kwan's Moving House: Why Do I Always Forget to Turn On...