Occupy and Women on the Internet — Part 2/3
Short films by women filmmakers: Kong King-chu
Almost a Revolution is a documentary written by Kong King-chu, who is a documentary film director, journalist, and founder of Stepforward Multimedia. Directed by Kwok Tak-chun, the film documents the experiences of seven different people during the long process that began with the Occupy Central movement to the Umbrella Movement of 2014, and their continuing struggle for universal suffrage.
Almost a Revolution (幾乎是，革命)
A film by Kwok Tat Chun & Kong King Chu
HDV / Colour / 180min / In Cantonese with English Subtitles
Produced in 2015
Coordinator: Step Forward Multimedia Co. Ltd.
For Kong King-chu’s most recent work, please visit http://revolutionw-screening.blogspot.hk for more updated information.
Short films by women filmmakers: Vicky Do
Source: Click to Open
Stranger from Paradise – dir. Vicky Do / 2014 / 5’38min
Filmed in a first person perspective and voiced over in Vietnamese, this short film documents the conflicted feelings of a Vietnamese girl as an outsider, as she observes the strive for greater democracy in Hong Kong. The film captures a conflicting sense of longing and disillusionment. The film was shown as part of the Umbrella Movement Shorts Selection in the 2015 Hong Kong Independent Film Festival.
The filmmaker: Vicky Do is a Vietnamese graduate student who studied fine arts photography in the United States before moving to Hong Kong. Her blog can be found at https://hongtouping.wordpress.com.
Short films by women filmmakers: Nate Chan
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Do you hear the women sing? – Dir. Nate Chan / 2014 / 25’45 min
Chan’s film documents the story of ten women who participated in the protests. This film specifically highlights the gender disparity between the experiences of men and women during the protests, in terms of issues of gender, violence, religion and politics. Do you hear the women sing? was shown as part of the Umbrella Movement Shorts Selection in the 2015 Hong Kong Independent Film Festival.
The filmmaker: Nate Chan Chin-hae is a photographer and documentary filmmaker, who has also worked as an assistant director for Evans Chan. Her blog can be found at https://hahuihui.wordpress.com/ .
Summary by Dr. Louisa Wei
Although this doc cannot really boast for any kind of film experiment, it is very informative and honest. The director succeeds in getting the most honest interviews from several women with different background. Besides the sharing of memories in the movement, especially in the night of tear gas, the director, with her edge in societal concerns, manages to raise questions in the relationship between religion and political movement. The most precious of all, is the film’s lending voice to women who are not speaking on big or small stages. While selecting the interview materials, there are parts that are gender sensitive (especially the experience of sexual harassment), but we also see a picture of different roles women played, different locations they chose, and different observations they had. After watching so many shorts, this film gives me a fuller picture of the movement than any other. It also includes shots of police in very close range, and a collage of Christian images. The film ends with two Form 6 girl students, who thought they must stand out, even though the big examination was close. I love Hong Kong women even more after watching this film.
Short films by women filmmakers: Liu To
A Tiny Handheld Camera – Dir. Liu To / 2014 / 7’21 min
Filmmaker Liu was crossing the road with a camera rolling during the protests, near a large group of police who then began to question what she was doing. This short film is a result of that interaction. The film was shown as part of the Umbrella Movement Shorts Selection in the 2015 Hong Kong Independent Film Festival.
The filmmaker: Liu To is a graduate of the Literature Department, Beijing Film Academy and garnered critical attention for her piece A Tiny Handheld Camera. Other documentary pieces depicting stories from the Umbrella Movement are forthcoming.
Summary by Dr. Louisa Wei
This little film was the darling last night among all shorts, as the audience laughed along its 7’31” duration. The director, holding a little camera, is filming while waiting on a red light. She was unexpectedly surrounded by a few policemen who repeatedly ask her to stop filming and move on to either side of the road and not stand in the middle of the road (though she is apparently on the safety island). This long take shows the insistence of both sides, the inability of communication, the mutual filming with one policeman also filming her while she films her own image from his mobile device, and the passer-by looking at both her and the policeman when they walk pass between the green lights. A soft, funny, unexpected confrontation, that catches the black humor of Hong Kongers. Lovely piece. Director Liu To said, she is making a real piece on the movement, and I really look forward to that.
Short Film by Leung Ka-yi Florence
The Silent Struggle – The Neglected Right To Know: The Lack of Sign Language News in Hong Kong – dir. Leung Ka-yi / 2014 / 4’50 min
Private video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Cl812acS0
Leung Ka-yi is a graduate from the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She inadvertently came across this different perspective of the Occupy Movement through the eyes of the deaf while searching for a news angle of the movement that hadn’t been covered yet. The result of this discovery was this documentary discussing the difficulty that the minority group had in receiving timely information about the protests as they were happening. While the transfer of information to the deaf about the protests in Hong Kong were especially troublesome due to the speed at which events took place, the lack of news resources for the deaf in Hong Kong is a long-term societal problem. In Leung’s blurb about her documentary, she states: “While Hong Kong people are fighting for a fair general election, we should also put the principle of equality in practice in our daily life by fighting for equal rights to know for the Deaf.” The Silent Struggle was featured in the Umbrella Festival 2015’s “Umbrella Assemblage” video presentation.
Short Film by Kanas Liu
Van Drivers – dir. by Kanas Liu / 2015 / 23′ min
Private video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNmwZX_SKCU
Van Drivers is a documentary by Kanas Liu that documents one yellow-ribbon van driver who struggles to coordinate a small volunteer fleet of self-organised, like-minded drivers who deliver water, umbrellas and other in-demand to the supply stations around the Admiralty area during the Occupy Movement. The documentary shows how these individuals respond to the Hong Kong Federation of Students’ appeal to surround the government offices on the fifth day of the movement. Liu is a graduate of Lingnan University who majored in Cultural Studies. Van Drivers marks her first foray into documentary filmmaking.
Hong Kong Women Filmmakers 
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