HK Protest Documentary Wins Golden Horse

A still from Chow's Revolution of Our Times documentary

Tonight the Golden Horse Awards, the Chinese-speaking world's equivalent of the Oscars was held tonight and the Hong Kong documentary on the 2019 protests was named Best Documentary.

When the film Revolution of Our Times was announced as the winner, it prompted a long round of applause and shouts of support for Hong Kong from the audience in Taipei.

Director Kiwi Chow sent a pre-recorded message from Hong Kong. He expressed thanks for the award, dedicated the film to Hong Kong people, saying he hoped it would bring them some comfort.

Chow speaking via a recorded message in HK

"I cried a lot when I produced this film; several times I comforted myself with this film, to express my anger, hatred, to face my fear and trauma," he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

The 152-minute documentary follows several protesters and documents their clashes with police in the 2019 anti-government protests. 

Revolution of Our Times was a last-minute addition to the Cannes Film Festival lineup in July, but it will never be shown in Hong Kong because of the national security law which prohibits any hint of secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces.

As a result those in the arts and culture fields are worried about work being misconstrued as contravening the national security law. Most recently the opening of M+ contemporary art museum resulted in photographs by dissident artist Ai Weiwei not being displayed even though they are part of a collection donated by well-known Swiss collector Uli Sigg.

This big win for the documentary comes days after the second anniversary of the District Council elections where 71 percent of registered voters turned the city's electoral map yellow except for one district. It was an unprecedented win for the pro-democrats, but the victory was short lived, again because of the national security law.

A poster of the documentary

Since then the city's institutions are being dismantled from the district councillors themselves to grassroots organisations and unions, as well as a pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily.

Chow's film is a reminder of what happened and to never forget.

Does HK Still have Artistic Freedom?

M+ in West Kowloon is completed, and will open end of 2021

 

Hong Kong's premier contemporary art museum, M+ is finally completed. Last week the media were taken around to have a look and one big question was now that the national security law has been implemented, will that affect what is shown at M+?

The museum's director, Suhanya Raffel, said there would be "no problem" in showing dissident artist Ai Weiwei's works and other pieces included in the M+ permanent collection, because their inclusion was based on research developed from "historical facts".

M+ director Raffel says collection "no problem"

"We have always had a robust curator-led approach to everything we do and that is underpinned by research and academic rigour," she said. "Like any global museum, it is our role to present art in a relevant and appropriate manner and stimulate debate, knowledge and pleasure. A city can only be a welcoming arts hub if it offers an open environment for artists and for different views."

Raffel may have to re-think her words after Eunice Yung Hoi-yan from the New People's Party raised concerns on Wednesday that Ai's work may violate the national security law by "spreading hatred against China".

She cited the example of a black and white picture of Ai holding up his middle finger in Tiananmen Square.

"If you point your middle finger towards Tiananmen Square, it means you want to show your anger against it, or you want to subvert the government with your artwork," she told RTHK.

Yung wonders if Ai's works are subversive

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the government will protect freedom of expression, but added she was confident the museum's curators would be capable of distinguishing works that constituted artistic expression from those endangering national security.

Of the 33 galleries in M+, 12 will be dedicated to the 1,000-piece collection of contemporary Chinese art from Swiss businessman Uli Sigg. Some of the pieces were shown in an exhibition in 2016 and some of those works would definitely not be shown in mainland China.

These include the above mentioned Ai piece called A Study Perspective: Tian'anmen, and photojournalist Liu Heung-shing's picture of the June 4 crackdown where a tricycle cart driver peddling two men with gunshot wounds to hospital.

Today Ai hit back at Yung's suggestion that his work was subversive.

Is this photograph subversive or is it art?

"All artworks, if they are of value, raise questions and challenges. Challenging authority is one of the core values of art," he told RTHK.

"If she thinks artworks are just ornaments, then I'd say she doesn't understand art," Ai said.

He added if his works cannot be exhibited in the museum, this would be a signal that Hong Kong is moving further away from universal values and is becoming part of authoritarianism.

This puts M+ curators in a tough spot -- will they stand their ground in the name of artistic freedom?