Now in its 10th year, we talk to three young filmmakers and the programme director of the impressive Fresh Wave…
Begun just a decade ago, the Fresh Wave programme has been nurturing young filmmakers in Hong Kong at a point when they needed that support the most, when productions and opportunities for the most commercially minded where rapidly evaporating as the film industry began to decline with the opening of the mainland market. The lack of forward thinking was hardly a new problem though. As Ann Hui told me, filmmakers had the opportunity to build for the future back in the 70s and 80s, but missed the chance then. The programme was instigated by Johnnie To, who like Hui also came from television in the 1970s when it became a hotbed of talent that would mainly become the Hong Kong New Wave, but rarely saw that opportunity for future filmmakers since. Perhaps that’s why Hui and other prominent filmmakers like Herman Yau, also attending Udine this year, have been involved as mentors.
Attending the 2015 Udine Far East Film Festival are three of the filmmakers of the four selected films – Anastasia Tsang (Marryland), Cai Jia-hao (Neighbours) and Louis Wong (iPhone Thieves) – accompanied by programme director Kasumi Wong. Sadly, Kasumi had all but completely lost her voice, but Jia-hao was applying some pressure to acupuncture points and amazingly that did seem to be working. Perhaps the most refreshing (pun intended) thing that stuck me about these young filmmakers this year along with their passion, was how socially conscious their work was, which became increasingly apparent from their responses. Perhaps an indicator of the interesting couple of years it’s been for Hong Kong, none of the directors chosen for this selection could be said to suffer from style over substance.
The interview was conducted with Peter Jevnikar, reporting for Primorski Dnevnik, Trieste-based newspaper of the Slovenian minority in Italy (http://www.primorski.it).
Can you tell me about Fresh Wave and how it has developed over the last decade?
Kasumi Wong (KW): In 2005, the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) initiated the Fresh Wave Short Film Competition, aiming to promote local filmmaking, and to identify and nurture budding cinematic art talents in the territory.
Fresh Wave evolved to become an international short film festival in 2010, in order to foster cultural exchanges and to broaden young filmmakers’ and local audiences’ horizons, as well as to promote local short films to worldwide audience.
In 2015, the Student Division is opened for all full-time students in Hong Kong instead of nominated by local institutions as in the past. Applicants could enjoy greater flexibility for crew members’ recruitment. We shall keep paying efforts and giving support to Hong Kong young filmmakers for further development and contribution to the Hong Kong film industry.
What support do you offer young filmmakers?
KW: We run a competition every year. For the Fresh Wave Local Competition Section, we offer HKD$70,000 for each entrant to produce an original work with duration between 5 to 25 minutes.
Each Fresh Wave awardee will be offered a subsidy of HKD$20,000 at maximum to visit overseas film festivals for the sake of cultural exchange.
All Fresh Wave shorts produced each year will be showcased in Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival which comprises a Q&A session after every screening. More interactions and sharing are expected between the filmmakers and audience. We provide media exposure by lining up for coverage with local media.
We contact overseas film festivals and local arts/ film organizations to help international exposures for the Fresh Wave shorts and provide supports for festival participations. For example, we financed flight tickets for the 3 Fresh Wave directors visiting the Udine Far East Film Festival this year.
We produce and distribute DVD showcases annually so as to increase exposures by reaching film festivals, film organizations and companies, cultural organizations and intuitions, public library and general public.
There are school tours that allow interactions and sharing between Fresh Wave filmmakers and local secondary students. Local film critics are invited to be moderators and conduct film appreciation and sharing sessions with Fresh Wave directors as well. It is a long-term audience building exercise aiming to inspire more youngsters on filmmaking and attending local young filmmakers that probably be anchors for Hong Kong film industry.
We also collaborate with various local organizations for special screenings with Q&A so as to help tapping new audience.
And to the filmmakers, what has been the best part of the support you’ve gained as part of the Fresh Wave programme?
Anastasia Tsang (AT): For me it was definitely the financial support. At that point I received HKD$50,000 [the amount raised this year].
Cai Jia-hao (CJH): The most important part for me was that we each had an established director who would act as mentor for our films, and their feedback proved invaluable. My mentor was Mabel Cheung.
Louis Wong (LW): One very important benefit we got from this programme was the assistance with the theatrical release. So that the films we make, even though they are very short, are actually being watch by the public. Normally short films have almost zero chance of being shown at big theatres. In addition to that, they also arrange opportunities like coming to overseas film festivals to show our work and share them with foreign audiences. Because that response is part of our growth and future development.
Can you tell me about how you got the inspiration for your films?
AT: My film Marryland is about a woman of 29-years-old who finds herself trapped in a very surreal space, and she discovers that if she wants to get out she needs to get married. The inspiration story is because in Asian and Hong Kong culture there is an expectation that women should have married before they turn 30, or else there will be pressures from parents or from friends.
Other than that, recently there is a media phenomenon that is addressed to this culture, and we’ve come up with the term ‘Sheng nu’ (剩女) in Cantonese, which basically means someone who is left behind or ‘expired’ [laughs]. Interestingly, even though the term is negative, it seems the public enjoys teasing about this kind of woman. So there are TV shows with the theme of these kinds of girls desperately trying to find boyfriends before they get left behind, and audiences really enjoy them. And they’ve become shows with very high ratings. There are also short videos on YouTube talking about them.
For me, my short film has the intention of saying something in response to this media attention – I would really like to stand on the side of these women who are being teased [laughs], and there true feelings when facing all these pressures.
CJH: So the original idea I had with the story was actually just a murder case. If you watch the film, there are four main characters: one is a widow, living downstairs, who has lost her husband; the young girl who has relocated from the Mainland to study in Hong Kong; a man wearing glasses across the hallway from her; and another main who is constantly playing the annoying Erhu instrument. Originally the point of view of the story was narrated through the policeman who’s investigating this crime. But then I discovered that if I changed the narrative to being through the young girl, it actually provides more layers of story. There was more background, or maybe I could cover more issues. Because it’s not just talking about the psychology of dealing with loneliness, with fear of being in a strange environment. I can take it further and actually attempt to deal with the subtle cultural differences between Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong people.
Peter: Jia-hao, it was interesting to me that you chose a mainlander as your main protagonist. I wonder if you could tell me why?
First of all, I am an immigrant in a sense. I immigrated to Hong Kong only six years ago, so this story probably has some of my own feelings during the early days when I moved to Hong Kong. I also noticed for the Hong Kong people, they think the Mainlanders are invading their homeland, so there’s a lot of animosity between them. But what I’d like to tell them is that the Chinese people are not exactly representing the government. What politicians express are not the opinions of ordinary Mainland Chinese. So I always believe that every issue has two sides, and you should always try to look at both sides before you judge. So I switched things around and, as you said, I speck on behalf of the Mainlander; how her neighbours did not treat her nicely. I want to use this film to present both sides of the issue to the audience.
LK: I tried to build on my story from my own experiences of growing up. However, I felt that if I delved to deep into the past, it makes it harder to address some of the issues I wanted to look at today. So I changed the protagonist to another youth, and used some of events that are occurring now, like people steeling iPhones, people smuggling products back and forth. By changing that structure a little bit, I’m able to turn my story of struggling to grow up, dealing with life and trying to survive as a young man with financial and economic issues and turn it into a more modern story.
The films have screened at the Fresh Wave part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival and Udine so far. How have they been received?
AT: From Q&A sessions, I received questions like ‘Is this a personal story?’ [laughs], but it is NOT. I actually filmed this project in quite an objective way as an observer of the phenomenon. And another question I’ve been asked is, ‘If I wanted to address this issue, why did I film in such a surreal way, rather than be more realistic?’ For me there are two reasons why I used this style. Firstly, from the women that I got in touch with, I get a very strong impression that because of the fear that they will not get married, I feel like their psychology is being locked in a box so they can’t see other possibilities of their life. So I have a strong impression to want to express how they limit themselves with these pressures. And the second reason is also because the Fresh Wave gives us a lot of freedom in expression – we can film any kind of style, any kind of story or idea. So that gives me freedom to think not just about the real story, but also look at different styles. My first narrative short film had been a very realistic story, so I want to test my limits and possibilities to do something extremely different! [laughs] for my second short film.
CJH: When my film was shown in Hong Kong, at the Q&A one person asked – because when it was screened as the Film Festival it was at the same time as the Umbrella movement in Hong Kong – so they asked particularly, ‘when did you make this movie? Was it before the rallies or after?’ And I explained it was made before June last year. And the reason that had been asked was because of the way policemen had been portrayed in the film; they were really rude. In the scene where the girl is questioned about the murder, and was not even courteous that this is someone reporting a crime. So that came across as a negative image of the police in my film. But this was actually was advice from my mentor [Mabel Chang] from her personal experience so I portrayed it that way in this film.
And then another question people keep asking me is, ‘Did the goldfish actually die?’ [laughs]. Here, I ran into an audience member this morning coming to the theatre, and talked seriously about the issue of new immigrants settling in a strange place or a new city. He actually talked to me about the loneliness, about some of the issues they have to face, and he commented that my film was a very realistic portrayal of those kind of sentiments.
LK: I’ve noticed that when I was in Hong Kong, the general reaction from the audience there seem more focused around being independent short filmmaker and some of the technical issues of making the film. They also criticised a little bit of the script, they even suggest that maybe it should end another way. That was what they were looking into on my film.
However, in Udine, I noticed that the audience actually recognised the issues that I wanted to address, and wanted to talk to me about if they were happing locally in Hong Kong. So for me that was a very big difference in how people respond and appreciate around the world.
Kasumi, it must be very gratifying to start to see directors who’ve been through the programme start to become successful in their own right?
KW: That’s right. In fact one participant, Mo Lai, actually based her first feature N+N (released 2012) on her short film 1+1, awardee of Fresh Wave Award 2010 and Fresh Wave Best Film Award (Open Division) 2010. Which also won Golden Prize, Open Category, The 17th Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Award.
Some other Fresh Wave directors who have already started their career in the film industry include:
Three Fresh Wavers Frank Hui (Director of Wasted, Best Film Award, 2006), Jevons Au (participated in scriptwriting of various works including Don’t Go Breaking My Heart and Romancing in Thin Air after winning the Best Film Award (Open Division) with Merry X’mas, 2007) and Vicky Wong (Director of The Decisive Moment, the Best Cinematography Award (Open Division) in Fresh Wave 2010) are currently co-directing a new feature film, FRIVISA. The film is produced by Mr. Johnnie To, renowned Hong Kong director and founder of Fresh Wave and Mr. YAU Nai Hoi, mentor of Fresh Wave.
Flora Lau, awardee of Fresh Wave Best Film Award (Open Division) 2009 with Dry Rain, has been nominated for Golden Camera and Un Certain Regard Award in Cannes Film Festival in 2013 with her feature film, Bends.
Cheuk Chueng, Fresh Wave director of Love letter from a Classmate in 2009, produced a documentary on Cantonese opera, My Way in 2012. He received Best Documentary, GZDOC 2012 with this production. The film has recently launched the US Tour in March – April 2015 with screenings in Ann Arbor, Chicago, New Haven and New York.
Kiwi Chow, Fresh Wave director of My White Balloon, produced and released his first feature film A Complicated Story in 2014 which received great acclaim.
So I guess the second part of that question, and I address is to all of you, is where do you see the future of Hong Kong filmmaking? Because over the last decade it’s been difficult with the emerging mainland market…
KW: Yes, It was very difficult. I can see that in the future there will be lots of difficulties [for filmmakers], and what we have to do is tackle every single difficulty. What we can do is support the young filmmakers, and equip them to make them really become a wave for the next generation of Hong Kong filmmakers. To have their productions showcased all around the world, and have help create a golden age for us. That’s what we want to do with Fresh Wave. It’s not only a competition, it’s not only a festival; it’s for our future. If we have no good filmmakers, we can do nothing for our industry.
AT: Of course Kasumi looks at that question very much from the industry point of view. Personally as a filmmaker, the first criteria for myself are that we need to be genuine about our work. We should not be trying to please the audience where the finance is coming from. But if we are genuine about are work and what we are trying to show, the audience will come, maybe from Italy and internationally.
CJH: From my perspective, comparing to the golden era of Hong Kong cinema when they produced maybe 200 films a year, and now to maybe 8 or 9 [independent, non-mainland co-produced films] films a year, it’s kind of discouraging. I sometimes feel apprehensive about where my future would be as a filmmaker. And sometimes I feel even more sad that some of our films where not even appreciated by our own audience in Hong Kong. So it’s a fact, but it’s also a fact that I’m passionate about filmmaking, and I’ve made the commitment to do this. I will continue my path and hopefully there will be opportunities for us.
KW: And I would like to add a few words about audience building. We are working on building audience in societies; not only in the general public, but with students in Hong Kong. Because they will be our future audience, and we would like them to be able to appreciate not only local film, but look deeper at film in general.
LK: I agree that the decline of the Hong Kong movie industry has been occurring gradually for quite some time now. Actually, based on the worst days, it seems to be getting a little bit better compared to the lowest periods. I feel that for young filmmakers there are some opportunities, as long as you go out and find them. Compared to my predecessors, their generation and the environment of Hong Kong politically and the structure of society, there have been a lot of changes. I’ve also noticed that younger generations are actually paying more attention to all these new developments. I believe that this kind of environment, and difficult and challenging as it is, produces more material for filmmakers to make a local film that addresses those issues. So during the most difficult times, they might actually create more opportunities for all of us.
Peter: This year I have noticed a big shift in how comfortable guests from Hong Kong have felt expressing their politics in the wake of the events over the last year. Considering how socially and politically charged your films are, I wondered if you were afraid this might have repercussions on your future career. Or do you hope that there is an end to so-called ‘blacklists’ and the like?
CJH: Generally speaking, an independent filmmaker has more freedom in content. They have more autonomy about what they want to say because of the structure, they are less bound by all this finance and investor concerns. So they can speak more freely about what they want to address in their works. Of course I’m concerned about the future, but there’s no way to predict now how films, or anything, may be treated in years to come. It’s too hard to say right now. I think this is a question that we have to answer at a later date, and see how it is. For now, established directors do have concerns, because they have immediate projects with big economic impact, and they have more liabilities attached to them. For us, we are free in a sense to have a little bit more freedom right now.
Peter: But what about your future as filmmakers? If the situation doesn’t improve, you’ll be confined to making independent movies?
KW: I think with the local situation right now, everybody wants to speak out, but they will do it more subtlety. I believe there will be more layers to the messages we would like to say in our films. Because creativity can not be limited in such a situation, but what we can do is use our creativity to tackle political problems. So if you care about those issues, you will understand those messages.
Thank you so much for your time, and please, do stay in touch with all your future projects.
If you’d like to know more about the Fresh Wave programme, you can visit the official website at http://www.freshwave.hk/.
If you’d like to apply, candidates can send an application with portfolio (10min short film required for Open Division, optional for Student Division) by mail or simply fill-in online application form at the website. For more details, kindly find the call for entry information for Fresh Wave 2015 with guidelines and application information (application for 2015 is already closed) here: http://www.freshwave.hk/?a=doc&id=1059
You can also visit their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/freshwavehk
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