Covid Numbers Climb; Oscar-Nominated Ascension

Babies and toddlers seems more at risk of Covid-19 now

Hong Kong had another record day of cases -- 7,533 -- and sadly 16 deaths, one of which was an 11-month old baby girl. There is a big concern now about children becoming infected and how they are not getting vaccinated or are too young to be vaccinated in the case of this baby.

Meanwhile the government is still going ahead with the vaccine pass that starts on Thursday. In order to get a haircut or go to a religious service you must have at least one jab and have this vaccination certification uploaded on your LeaveHomeSafe app.

Uploaded vaccine passport is on left, none on right

If you are going to a shopping mall, supermarket, department store or wet market then you may need to show your vaccine pass if a security person stops you. So there may be some people who are not vaccinated and may take the risk of going into a supermarket without having to show anything. How is this helpful?

And perhaps even worse, no vaccination is needed at all to go into a hotel! Why is that when almost all hotel staff were pushed to get the jab? It boggles the mind.

Something completely unrelated to Covid -- I watched a documentary called Ascension that was nominated for Best Documentary at this year's Academy Awards.

I didn't know quite what to expect and was surprised at the end and how it all came together.

Oscar-nominated documentary Ascension

There is no one main character, no particular storyline, but it becomes more apparent the longer you watch it. It starts off with scenes of people looking for jobs and those trying to entice them with decent labour conditions, like free wifi, air conditioning in the dormitories, but the pay is very low at around 20 kuai (US$3.15) an hour. We are not sure what the jobs entail, but some say you get to sit while working, others say the job is in an office.

People get rounded up and taken in coaches to their new destiny.

Some make rugs for Ikea, components for spray bottles, bottles of water, others make microchips, Christmas trees, jeans, and shirts. 

Perhaps the most amusing scene is watching mostly women putting sex dolls together. They are made of silicone, with large pendulous breasts, and curvy bottoms. They have permanent surprised expressions on their faces. Each one is custom made -- "Her nipples need to be pink!" one worker says, another has her wig changed from blonde to brunette. Another flings the doll's legs apart to inspect her down there. Each one is photographed to make sure it is correctly done up.

Worker checks the sex doll's face with the order

An interesting tidbit is that director Jessica Kingdon said a subsequent talk that all the sex doll factories they went to were owned by women.

Then the film shifts to jobs that have been created in the last few years, such as cryptocurrency mining (mostly young guys playing video games and eating lots of junk food), men collecting rented bikes that are dumped in a pile, people talking into their smartphone streaming online to sell things, and what looks like a pyramid company, where everyone is aiming to make over 10 million yuan in three years.

There's also people who are training to be bodyguards, hitting each other until there are scratches and bruises on their chests, and to be professional-looking assistants where they should smile to show eight of their upper teeth, while others are training to be butlers, measuring the distance between glasses and plates. The instructor asks them if they have ever watched Downton Abbey and none of them have, leaving them with little understanding with what career they have chosen.

It's an interesting look at what Chinese wealthy people think what being rich should look like, and the butlers trying to fulfill that fantasy. They probably assume everyone in England lives like that, ringing a bell for the butler to appear. 

People waiting around to get work in factories

This is similar to the aspirations of China's middle class. They think they have made it when they buy luxury brands or they go to a water park and sharks swim around them in an outer pool. It's all quite overwhelming the sheer numbers of people all trying to enjoy themselves at the same time.

Kingdon herself has an interesting background. Her father is Jewish-American, her mother is Chinese. Her brother went to China for a few years, learned Mandarin and persuaded his sister to come look at the country.

Before Covid-19, Kingdon and her small crew filmed in 51 different locations around the country and she says in interviews she had the best Chinese food. Kingdon also managed to meet relatives on her mother's side, one of which is now a cousin who works in Silicon Valley in the US.

Nevertheless, the title of the film comes from her great grandfather who wrote poems. One of them is Ascension, where he writes that the higher one climbs, one is horrified by what they see down below.

Director Jessica Kingdon, her mother is Chinese

This encapsulates the film -- how people are struggling to get ahead in some way, whether it's factory work to escape the poverty in the countryside, or to become a butler in the hopes of getting away from a terrible work environment. And with all this production and capitalism leads to terrible environmental damage, climate change, and exploitation of labour.

But Ascension doesn't preach a particular message, nor is it judgemental -- it has a fly-on-the-wall approach to the film and lets the viewers see what is going on and decide for themselves what they see in the documentary.

Ascension

Directed by Jessica Kingdon

97 minutes

HK Censors Movies for National Security

The dystopian film Ten Years would be banned

 

The Hong Kong government has now focused its attention on censoring movies because of the national security law just to make things even worse for the local film industry.

Under the Film Censorship Ordinance, public screening of films will not be allowed if they are found to be "endorsing, supporting, promoting, glorifying or inciting" acts of subversion, secession, terrorism, or collusion with foreign forces.

This documentary was nominated for an Oscar

Films like Ten Years, which was made in 2015 that speculated what would happen to Hong Kong in 10 years (and some of it already came true), would be banned from being screened.

The latest move would ban films like this as well as documentaries like the Oscar-nominated Do Not Split and Inside the Red Brick Wall that covered the 2019 anti-government protests would never be allowed to be shown in Hong Kong.

This kind of censorship was seen earlier with M+, the contemporary art museum due to open at the end of this year was under pressure to now show work deemed anti-China.

Apparently films will be censored by a panel of 40 people appointed by the chief executive. They will review the films and then classify them based on depictions of sex, violence, crime, or any insult to race or religion, among other concerns.

Ai Weiwei's political art puts pressure on M+

The censorship guidelines are developed by the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau.

While Tenky Tin Kai-man, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers says movie professionals will need to seek clarification of the guidelines by the authorities, he said filmmakers would make sure they are not crossing any red lines if they wanted their movies to be shown across the border.

Crucindo Hung Cho-sing, chairman of the Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association, said it would be in the best interests of filmmakers to not touch sensitive topics as their livelihoods are at stake.

"But I believe filmmakers in our association aim to make money. They definitely won't make movies endangering national security," he said.

This protest documentary will also be censored

Grace Leung Kai-kuen, a lecturer at Chinese University's school of journalism and communication, said few movies had been banned in the past, and if they were it was because it was related to pornography.

She worries this latest censorship salvo will further weaken the local film industry.

"Hong Kong movies are already dying. With this, it will worsen their challenges," she said.

Leung noted some local movies carried more critical perspectives than mainland ones.

"Now they will be the same," she said.

Chloe Zhao's Big Oscar Win Muted in China

Zhao gives her acceptance speech with a saying in Mandarin

 

The results of the Academy Awards this year were such a breakthrough for Asian stars and films -- but no one in Hong Kong could watch them on television.

On March 29, pro-establishment broadcaster TVB announced it would not show The Oscars -- despite airing the awards show for the past 52 years -- saying it was a "purely commercial" decision.

Protesters shield themselves in Do Not Split

Perhaps it was following an edict from Beijing telling mainland Chinese media in February not to transmit live coverage of the Academy Awards this year because of the nomination of Do Not Split, a 35-minute documentary about the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and remarks made by Beijing-born director Chloe Zhao back in 2013 that were deemed controversial by Chinese internet users.

In the end China was the sore loser -- Do Not Split did not win after all for Best Documentary Short, losing to Colette about a French resistance survivor who returns to Germany for the first time since World War II, while Zhao, 39, won two Oscars for Nomadland. She is the first woman of colour and second female to win Best Director, and she also won for Best Picture, while actress Frances McDormand also won Best Actress for Nomadland.

While Asians on Twitter rejoiced Zhao's historic win, the Chinese on the mainland were completely silent, either unaware or instructed not to make any comments on social media, or if anyone tried to post something about her or her film, it was immediately censored.

A widow drifts around the US in Nomadland

Nomadland was supposed to be released in China on April 23 and it may not even happen.

Nevertheless, Zhao seems to have taken things in stride and in fact took the high road.

"I've been thinking a lot lately of how I keep going when things get hard. I think it goes back to something I learned when I was a kid," she said in her acceptance speech.

"When I was growing up in China, my dad and I used to play this game. We would memorize classic Chinese poems and texts, and we would recite them together and try to finish each other's sentences.

"There's one that I remember so dearly, it's called the Three Character Classics. The first phrase goes, '人之初，性本善', 'People at birth are inherently good'. Those six letters had such a great impact on me when I was a kid and I still truly believe them today.

Zhao's win was censored in China today

"Even though sometimes it might see like the opposite is true, I have always found goodness in the people I met, everywhere I wen in the world.

"So this is for anyone who had the faith, and the courage to hold on to that goodness in themselves, and to hold on to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that.

"And this is for you. You inspire me to keep going."

In that thoughtful speech Zhao demonstrated she was a well educated woman who learned Chinese classics and has kept those values as an adult. 

Why wouldn't Beijing want to uphold her as an example of a worldly and successful Chinese person who has conquered Hollywood? 

But no, it would rather not showcase someone who left China and became an independent person with an independent mind. And she's a woman.

Zhao's next movie is Marvel's Eternals, starring Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani and Richard Madden that is due out in November.

Will Beijing ban that too?

 

Parasite's Historic Win

Bong Joon Ho receives the Oscar for Best Picture from Jane Fonda

What a big win for Parasite at the 92nd Academy Awards!!!

Best Original Screenplay. Best International Feature [formerly Best Foreign Language Film]. Best Director. And Best Picture.

Ang Lee won in 1994 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

How can you top that! And not be a film in English?

Writer, director and producer Bong Joon Ho did just that tonight.

South Koreans are celebrating like there's no tomorrow, and it's reminiscent of 2001 when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for 10 Oscars. The xuxia film won Best Foreign Language Film (Ang Lee), Best Art Direction (Timmy Yip), Best Original Score (Tan Dun), and Best Cinematography (Peter Pau).

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon stuck its foot in the Academy door, and now 19 years later, Parasite has walked through without missing a beat.

The wuxia film opened the door for Asian foreign films

Bong's win is not just for South Koreans, it's for any filmmaker whose first language is not English, that they too have a chance to win the coveted golden statue.

The Academy Awards is finally becoming more diverse and it's about time.

It's also a reminder of when singer Bruce Springsteen performed Streets Of Philadelphia for the film Philadelphia for the 1994 Academy Awards.

When he won for Best Original Song, Springsteen said at the end of his speech, "Thank you all for inviting me to your party".

So it's good to see the Oscars not be so cliquey and have a broader range of nominations. 

The cast of Parasite with Bong on the red carpet at the Oscars

We love Bong's speech when he received the Best Director award; he was so gracious, speaking without notes:

"When I was young and studying cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart, which is that, 'The most personal is the most creative.'

"That quote is from our great Martin Scorsese. When I was at school, I studied Martin Scorsese's films. Just to be nominated was a huge honour. I never thought I would win.

"When people in the US were not familiar with my films, Quentin [Tarantino] always put my films on his list. He's here, thank you so much. Quentin, I love you.

Bong paid tribute to mentor Martin Socorsese

"And Todd [Phillips] and Sam [Mendes], great directors that I admire. If the Academy allows, I would like to get a Texas chainsaw, split the award into five and share it with all of you.

"Thank you. I will drink until next morning, thank you."

Review: Free Solo

Free solo climber Alex Honnold climbing up El Capitan in Yosemite

The Academy Award-winning documentary Free Solo will leave you breathless and your palms sweaty. Who in their right mind would want to climb up a practically sheer mountain face with just their bare hands without any assistance, let alone ropes?

But that's what a free solo climb is, and it takes a person with a certain physical agility, endurance and mindset to be able to execute these climbs successfully and Alex Honnold is one of them.



The cinematography alone is breathtaking, seeing Honnold a tiny speck climbing up a giant mountain and God knows how many metres below him. One false move and that could be the end.

But he embraces this challenge fully, having learned mountain climbing from his father and it suits his personality, quiet, shy, geeky, loner, determined. He's also vegetarian and does yoga to keep his body flexible -- you cannot be overweight or stiff to to do what he does.

El Capitan is a challenge climbers like to try

He had always been eyeing El Capitan (The Chief), which they constantly refer to as "El Cap" in the film, which is in Yosemite National Park. Its elevation is 2,308 metres or 7,573 feet. You can actually hike up to the top, or if you're like Honnold, you can climb up it.

The media and people at book signings ask him if he's crazy to attempt El Cap, and as he has a self-deprecating humour, he goes along with the joke, but inside he is burning to try.

Throwing a wrench in the works is his girlfriend who he meets at a book signing in Seattle. She even causes him to be injured twice, which freaks out his fellow climbers who are trying to help him prepare for El Cap.

Free Solo also documents the pressure filmmaker Jimmy Chin and his crew are under in trying to make this film. All his cameramen are professional climbers but they are worried about distracting Honnold and technically can they get this all on film? And what if he falls? Then what?

Professional climbers helped film the documentary

It's all laid to bare in the documentary and every time someone slips, the audience gasps. As a viewer you have a bit of insight into the mind of someone who likes doing free solo climbs, what is involved in preparing for these climbs (they practice with ropes may times beforehand), and that not everything is smooth sailing.

But his climb is also like a metaphor for life -- we all face challenges, but it depends on how we want to face them. Do we want to just run away and hope it goes away? Or do we want to attack it full on with enough preparation and determination?

It's a heart-thumping story from beginning to end, hence the sweaty palms, particularly in my friend YTSL's case! I'm not going climbing anytime soon, but now have a bit of an understanding of why people do what most think is completely insane.

Chai Vasarhelyi and Chin who won an Oscar for Free Solo

Free Solo (2018)
Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
Starring Alex Honnold
85 minutes

Tunes Down Memory Lane

Burt Bacharach is one of America's most famous songwriters

This morning we arranged for a van to take us to Civitavecchia, an hour’s drive from Rome to board our cruise ship, Queen Victoria.

We arrived early and so we were quickly checked in onto the ship and settled in. After an early dinner of roasted cauliflower soup, roasted cod with cherry tomatoes, and dessert of berries with marscapone cream, we caught the evening’s entertainment called Back to Bacharach.

I had no idea that songwriter Burt Bacharach is still very much alive and well at the age of 90 and still touring, and has won six Grammys and three Academy Awards.

Bacharach is still touring at the age of 90

He didn't do it alone -- he and Hal David penned some really big hits, like Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, What's New Pussycat, and I'll Never Fall in Love Again.

But at one point Bacharach and David had a falling out after they worked on the film Lost Horizon that was a flop, and apparently they didn't speak for a decade. In the meantime, Bacharach teamed up with Carol Bayer Sager. 

They married and put out such hits as Arthur's Theme, Making Love, and On My Own.

Three singers, two women and one man sang such numbers as Walk On By, The Look of Love, (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me, I'll Never Fall in Love Again, On My Own, and Arthur's Theme.

Learned more about Bacharach and how songs I knew from before were written by this talented songwriter.

Review: Lady Bird

Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson with her best friend trying to figure out life

Even before the Oscars I wanted to watch Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig's film about a senior in high school who has just as strong a personality as her mother.

Saoirse Ronan is Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson, a 17-year-old senior in a Catholic high school and full of angst. She feels her mother (Laurie Metcalf) doesn't understand her and misinterprets it as not liking her.

So Lady Bird, as she likes to call herself, rebels for the sake of rebelling because going against the system is how she envisions her mission in life is.

Meanwhile her mother, who is a nurse, is in a tizzy because the family is financially strapped, especially after her father (Tracy Letts) loses his job and can't understand why Lady Bird can't be more understanding and helpful, and apply for local colleges.

However, Lady Bird wants to dream big and go to Yale -- well somewhere like Yale that would accept her, because she thinks she needs to go to a more liberal place, or at least as far away from Sacramento, California as she can get.

Lady Bird has constant fights with her mother Marion

At the same time she falls in and out of love, realizes the importance of true friends and quickly grows up. But during her antics, each of us can see a bit of ourselves in Lady Bird. It's that anxious feeling of wanting to fit in with the cool crowd, or arguing with mothers over which prom dress looks better, or trying to process the difference between love and sex.

The film is set in 2002, a year after 9/11, when the economic situation in the country was difficult, and threats of terrorism were still fresh on people's minds.

It's an honest film with raw emotions -- teenage angst butting heads with the reality of life ahead.

Ronan encapsulated Lady Bird perfectly, she is uncontrollable and yet in the end she knows what is right and wrong. Metcalf as her suffering mother, is so real. She's desperately trying to prepare Lady Bird for the next chapter in her life, and yet her daughter refuses to listen and she is at her wit's end.

Director Greta Gerwig also wrote the screenplay

The bond between both of them is the father played by Letts, a gentle soul who knows both women so well, but he also has issues he needs to sort out too. A funny contrast is Lady Bird's adopted brother Miguel who's smart but is a cashier at the grocery store and his girlfriend, both of them with lots of face piercings. Lady Bird points out perhaps that's why they can't get a real job... probably true!

Lady Bird is refreshing and relatable on many levels. Each of us has had a bit of Lady Bird at one time in our lives.

Lady Bird

93 minutes

Directed by Greta Gerwig

Starring Saorise Ronan, Laurie Metcalf and Tracy Letts

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay

The Women's March Continues

Fantastic acceptance speech by Frances McDormand paying tribute to women

This morning Hong Kong time I followed the Oscars on live blog feeds and then watched the last three awards announced live on television -- Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Picture.

I'm so glad I caught the last three acceptance speeches, particularly Frances McDormand who won Best Actress for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

It's about a mother who channels her grief and anger into goading the authorities to find out who killed her daughter.

When McDormand's was called out, she marched onto the stairs to the stage like a woman on a mission.

Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek

"If I could have all the women stand up with me in this moment," she said, urging all the women who were nominated, including Meryl Streep in the front row to get up to take the lead. "Look around, everybody, look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell, and we all have projects we need to finance."

At the end she said, "I have two words for you -- inclusion rider", which means a clause in the contract where the cast and crew have to be diverse to retain the actor.

Finally we are seeing the start of pay equity -- will that filter down to the rest of us?

Here in Hong Kong there is a massive imbalance between what men and women make here in terms of salaries, let alone leadership positions.

Meanwhile seeing actresses Ashley Judd, Annabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek on stage talking about the #metoo movement, and how "time's up" was another proud moment.

The #metoo movement in China is still nascent

I've been reading as many #metoo stories as I can, particularly those from China. And when I read them, I think about the many women who felt they couldn't speak out without being punished, who continue to have vivid nightmares of what happened to them, who could not live with the shame of what was done to their bodies.

The #metoo movement may be half a world away, but change is happening and it will continue as long as women continue to speak out. Their experiences need to be documented and remembered so that it doesn't happen to the next generation.

The buck stops here.

Review: Small Talk

Many times A-nu (left) is silent when her daughter asks her tough questions

On the plane back to Vancouver, I watched an intriguing Taiwanese documentary called Small Talk (日常對話) that was released last year. It made its international premiere at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival where it won a Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film. It has also recently been nominated as Taiwan's pick for the foreign-language film category in the Academy Awards.

A-nu is more at ease with her many girlfriends

It is a brutally honest film about filmmaker Huang Hui-chen and her relationship with her lesbian mother A-nu, who is a Taoist priestess at funerals. Huang says in the beginning that even though she has lived with her mother most of her life, she knows almost nothing about her, always not home and wants to know why. Is it because she doesn't love her two daughters? Is it because they were adopted?

Through a series of tough face-to-face interviews, as well as footage meeting her mother's siblings, talking to her mother's lovers past and present, and even old home movies of Huang growing up, we along with Huang find out more about A-nu.

We discover she knew from a young age that she was lesbian and Huang doesn't understand or at times is naive about what it's like to be gay, and we discover how she is very generous and loving towards her several girlfriends.

In one scene, A-nu plays with her granddaughter

When asked to comment about their sister's sexuality, her brothers and older sister either don't want to talk about it or don't seem to care. They seem embarrassed to talk about it, and would rather discuss her failed arranged marriage to a man.

Before when I used to watch Chinese movies, there would be a lot of silence between characters and I thought it was for dramatic effect, but this is what happens in reality. There are very long pauses when A-nu answers Huang's questions, or complete silence; you can tell she is thinking about something but says she won't answer the question and gets up to leave, with Huang left sitting in the chair disappointed not to get more information.

However she is persistent and the climax of the film is quite intense. As viewers we don't quite know what happens in the end -- are things better or worse between mother and daughter?

Huang with her Teddy Award

Although the pace seems slow, Small Talk attracts viewers with its intriguing premise and we go on a journey with Huang to find out more about A-nu. Her lovers recounting how she seduced them are the light-hearted moments in the film and reveal a touching side of A-nu that Huang was completely unaware of, though they are equally balanced by the dark experiences both mother and daughter faced.

The film is executive produced by famed director Hou Hsiao-hsien, giving it not only professional weight, but also an endorsement to talk about LGBT stories. Will we see more from Taiwan? That would be light years ahead of Hong Kong...

Small Talk (2016)
Directed by Huang Hui-chen
88 Minutes

That's Chicago

Lining up to get into the theatre to watch Chicago for a matinee show

You can't go to New York without seeing a show. The hottest ticket these past few years has been Tony award-winning Hamilton, which goes up to the thousands of dollars. There is a lottery draw every day for cheap tickets, but apparently 7 million people take part in it everyday so the chances of winning are really slim.

The show that used to be the most popular in town before Hamilton was Book of Mormon and those tickets have now dropped to US$145 each, but we opted for even cheaper tickets to see Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre.

The orchestra took up most of the stage

I'd seen a live performance many years ago in Hong Kong and then saw the Oscar-winning film starring Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

So while the story line was a bit fuzzy, we still remembered many of the songs.

The stage in this theatre was very small -- so small that the orchestra took up a big chunk of the stage sitting stadium style. As a result the performers didn't have much of a set to work with, and even interacted with the conductor to connect the music with the characters.

However, the performers were very strong, which made up for the very small stage. The two women who played Roxie Hart (Charlotte d'Amboise) was vibrant and amusing, while Velma Kelly (Amra-Faye Wright) was fun and bitchy.

Jaime Camil after the show signing autographs

They were both in jail for killing men, and their lawyer, the slick Billy Flynn was performed by Jaime Camil, who is considered a very well-known actor in the Spanish-speaking world.

This was apparent after the show, when many fans waited outside for him to come out and sign autographs and have his picture taken.

Because the stage was so small, the performers couldn't do much choreographed dancing which was a pity, and so it was important to know the story line well. Perhaps the best scene was Billy Flynn acting like a ventriloquist using Roxie Hart as a puppet mouthing his words during a press conference to give her side of the story.

The actors added a few witty words here and there or fun body language to keep the script fresh, and the conductor was also a character in the show.

He got lots of applause for his performance

The ending was anti-climactic, with the two women singing and dancing together, but nothing too complicated. Nevertheless we still enjoyed the show, about revenge, greed, ego and sex.

Chicago

Ambassador Theatre

219 West 49th Street

New York

(212) 239 6200

Movie Review: Spotlight

Spotlight follows the team that uncovered sex abuse in the Catholic Chuch

I just came back from seeing Spotlight, which is nominated for six Academy Awards, though pundits are saying its chances of winning golden statues are slim because it's all dialogue and no dramatic chase or sex scenes.

It has won a host of other awards from Bafta, Critics Choice Movie Award, National Society of Film Critics Award and others, though we hope the film will get an Oscar nod -- or two.

Like All The Presidents Men that inspired a generation or two of people to become journalists, Spotlight will hopefully do the same, though the economic conditions of running the paper takes more precedence than the stories it runs these days.

Nevertheless, Spotlight is based on true events about an investigative team at The Boston Globe called Spotlight. A new editor in chief comes in, Marty Baron, who is Jewish and new to Boston.

The actors in Spotlight with the real reporters of The Globe

He finds it curious that there was no follow up on a case about a priest molesting children and gets the Spotlight team to work on it. And what they uncover is not just one, but many more priests in Boston who committed the same horrific crime.

The church's pervasive influence over Boston is evident, with a code of silence the reporters must break, in some cases ruining friendships and connections to get the truth.

At first the dialogue flies fast with lots of names to follow, but soon we grasp what's going on and especially the magnitude of the case, as we discover the facts as the reporters do.

They talk to lots of victims, hearing their stories which corroborates with what a former priest, now academic who has studied pedophile priests for three decades, they badger the lawyers who represented the church, and finally get the trust of a lawyer who has been trying to prosecute the church for years.

In their investigation, the reporters uncover that The Globe was also complicit -- hardly questioning what was going on, and dismissing victims as weak sources.

Cardinal Law is now an archpriest in The Vatican

In the end Spotlight wrote 600 stories about priests abusing people in 2002 and Cardinal Bernard Francis Law who did nothing about it, except shift the priests around, finally resigned in the same year.

The Vatican didn't punish him, but instead transferred him to be archpriest of one of Rome's four papal basilicas, Santa Maria Maggiore.

Law is in his mid-80s and hasn't spoken publicly about the expose, or his part in it; instead he remains cloistered in The Vatican. Law gets the last laugh.

But the reverberations of the original breaking story are not over -- Pope Francis is trying to tackle the issue now, though as delicately as possible, but at least has acknowledged the pain of the victims, many who turned to drugs and alcohol or even suicide.

Being in the same occupation, I was riveted watching the movie from beginning to end. We don't see much of the team's dynamics except that they are completely focused on their goal, and they like being able to keep their work confidential even to their colleagues.

Nevertheless, Spotlight reminded me of my job -- to inform the public of what's really going on. Hong Kong is an interesting city because it too is like Boston in how the wealthy and powerful determine how much a story can be reported.

And with the growing cold climate that President Xi Jinping is casting over the media sector these days, more restrictions will be an added challenge. We must have courage.

Not Exactly Choreographed

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam encountering views counter to the government...

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is having a tough time to say the least.

Not only did people boo her and her entourage when they tried to do a bus tour through some Hong Kong districts on the weekend, but she even encountered dissent at a pro-Beijing event this evening.

At a community outreach session supposedly choreographed by the Federation of Trade Unions at Lai Kok Estate in Cheung Sha Wan, Lam fielded questions from residents.

The media watched as the first man chosen by FTU lawmaker Chan Yuen-han to raise a question said to Lam, "I want universal suffrage."

Holding a microphone, the middle-aged man added Lam failed to deliver on her promise to get rid of illegal structures in rural New Territories when she was secretary for development.

His microphone was then switched off and taken away by helpers.

The next man to speak was accompanied by an FTU officer, who read into his ear: "Support the chief executive election in 2017."

How original.

Afterwards Lam said to the media: "I've heard such views. I don't hold the view that we are unaware of split views in society."

You don't say, Carrie! But what are you going to do about it?

Having someone demand universal suffrage at an event held by Beijing loyalists is surely very embarrassing to say the least.

Former chief secretary Anson Chan Fong On-sang speculated Lam was "between a rock and a hard place".

"Carrie has no power even though you can see, reading between the lines, she is very unhappy actually with the whole way this consultation and the package of the constitutional proposals has been presented," Chan said.

She even added, "I have the distinct impression that she doesn't believe what's coming out from her own mouth."

Ouch. Guess Lam isn't winning an Academy Award for Best Actress anytime soon -- or is Chan hinting the incumbent isn't very good at her job?

Hong Kong's Oscar Mention

Common (left) and John Legend make passionate acceptance speeches

In Hong Kong the Academy Awards are broadcast in the morning our time until around 1pm. We have the television on in the office to catch the odd speech or interesting musical number -- like Lady Gaga doing an amazing imitation of Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.

But when Common and John Legend came up to the stage to pick up the Oscar for best original song for "Glory" from the film Selma, about Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement, our jaws dropped.

Common started off by saying:

First off, I'd like to thank God that lives in us all. Recently, John and I got to go to Selma and perform "Glory" on the same bridge that Dr King and the people of the civil rights movement marched on 50 years ago. This bridge was once a landmark of a divided nation, but now is a symbol for change. The spirit of this bridge transcends race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and social status. The spirit of this bridge connects the kid from the South side of Chicago, dreaming of a better life to those in France standing up for their freedom of expression, to the people in Hong Kong protesting for democracy. This bridge was built on hope. Welded with compassion. And elevated by love for all human beings.

There was an immediate flurry of tweets on Twitter, thanking @common for the shout out to Hong Kong.

"Tears welled up in my eyes," said Edward Chin, founder of a group of banking and finance professionals in Hong Kong that supported the protests. He was touched to know the protesters' efforts were recognized elsewhere. "We haven't achieved much yet, but Hong Kong people still have dreams... We know that it will be a prolonged fight but we will have true democracy one day."

Avery Ng, the vice-chairman of the League of Social Democrats who was among those arrested and then released for his participation in the 79-day protest said he was "deeply moved" by the speech.

"I watched Selma a few weeks ago. I couldn't help but feel a powerful emotional connection with the people in Selma 50 years ago. They remind us that we still have much oppression to endure before we can see the road of freedom," he said.

Legend took to the microphone and added these words:

Thank you. Nina Simone said it's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live. We wrote this song for a film that was based on events that were 50 years ago, but we say Selma is now, because the struggle for justice is right now. We know that the voting rights, the act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now in this country today. We know that right now the struggle for freedom and justice is real. We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850. When people are marching with our song, we want to tell you that we are with you, we see you, we love you, and march on. God bless.

Needless to say the leadership in Beijing are probably infuriated to see that the Hong Kong protests did resonate with people in the west, and that the movie may inspire them to continue their fight for universal suffrage.

Speaking of which -- the other day another brilliant yellow banner with the words "I want true universal suffrage" was unfurled on Lion Rock again, a testament that the Umbrella Movement refuses to die!

And now will the movement gain momentum again with its new theme song, "Glory"?

A Brilliant Storyteller Gone

Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul took his own life at 36

I don't watch many movies but prefer documentaries and absolutely loved Searching for Sugar Man last year.

It was an interesting story about two South African journalists trying to track down American musician Sixto Rodriguez who somehow disappeared, but gained popularity in South Africa.

The documentary won an Oscar last year, the first Swedish film to win an Academy Award since Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander in 1984.

Bendjelloul helped revive Sixto Rodriguez's career, now 71

Not only did it win lots of accolades including audience and special jury awards at the Sundance Film Festival, but also helped revive Rodriguez's career, now 71.

So it was shocking to discover that the director of the film, Malik Bendjelloul, 36. committed suicide on Tuesday in Stockholm.

Initial reports said the director was found dead, and later his brother Johar said, "I can confirm my brother has taken his own life and that he had been depressed for a short period of time. Life is not always so easy... it's the worst. I don't know how to handle it."

Sony Pictures Classics, the film's distributor released a statement: "Much like Rodriguez himself, Malik was a genuine person who chased the world for stories to tell. He didn't chase fame, fortune or awards, although those accolades still found him as many others recognized his storytelling."

Bendjelloul had experience doing documentaries, having done ones for TV on Elton John, Rod Stewart and Bjork.

The young director accepting the Academy Award last year

He also worked as a reporter for Sweden's public broadcaster SVT and then resigned in order to backpack around the world. It was when he traveled did he find out about Rodriguez and got the idea for Searching for Sugar Man.

However it took Bendjelloul four years to make the film. When the film was 90 percent done, having edited it for three years, the main sponsor withdrew support. Having used all his savings and borrowed money from friends, he stopped working on the movie just to make ends meet.

In the end he finally completed the film by shooting the final parts with his smartphone and doing his own animation that is in the documentary.

After the Oscar win, Bendjelloul went on a safari and was apparently working on his next film about a man who communicates with elephants.

That would have been another amazing story... but no more.

Swedish film critic Hynek Pallas, who accompanied Bendjelloul to the Oscars, described him as a modest, but determined man.

The documentary received numerous international accolades

"He was an incredibly talented storyteller," Pallas wrote. "He had the strength of a marathon runner, to work on his film for so many years and sometimes without money, then you have a goal."

We may never know why Bendjelloul decided to end it all, and it is so sad to have such great talent gone. But we are grateful he told us about Rodriguez with such passion.

Bendjelloul was a true artist, staying focused on his goal despite the adverse challenges he faced. When you watch Searching for Sugar Man, you can see it was a labour of love, and also it was too good a story to resist not telling.