AI technology is reshaping the entry barriers and workflows of independent filmmaking. Amid this trend, independent filmmakers are facing various transformations and possibilities. This symposium will focus on how AI affects the creative process and working methods of independent film, and how it is changing production turnaround. At the same time, we will discuss the irreplaceable importance of “artificiality” within AI creative workflows. 

From the perspectives of creative practice, theory, and pedagogy, this discussion will examine how AI is at once a tool and a challenge, redefining independent filmmaking and its ecosystem.

Supporter: 

Moderator:

Timmy Chih-Ting Chen is assistant professor in cultural studies at Hong Kong Metropolitan University. Dr. Chen has published in A Companion to Wong Kar-wai (Wiley Blackwell), the Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Surveillance in Asian Cinema (Routledge), The Assassin (HKU Press), Frames Cinema Journal, Sound Stage Screen, and Film Quarterly. 

Speakers:

Ruby Yang is an Academy Award–winning filmmaker born in Hong Kong who has worked across the United States, Beijing, and Hong Kong for more than 35 years. Renowned for her powerful storytelling in both documentary and dramatic cinema, she received the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. In 2013, she joined the University of Hong Kong as the Hung Leung Hau Ling Distinguished Fellow in the Humanities at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC), where she founded the Hong Kong Documentary Initiative. In 2019, she received the Artist of the Year Award at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. She is currently the Director of the Academy of Future Media at the University of Hong Kong. 

Choi Sin-yi (Emilie) is a researcher and film programmer based in Hong Kong, currently a PhD candidate at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong and a part-time lecturer at the Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research explores the intersections of media, environment, technology, and infrastructure, with additional interests in Asian documentary and experimental cinema. Her writing has appeared in journals including Modernism/modernity and Film Quarterly, and she has presented her research at institutions such as the EYE Filmmuseum (Netherlands). 

Choi has contributed to editorial projects such as Still Jumping: Mediated Performance and Moving Image Across Asia and the Global Stage, 2004–2024 (2026) and Cinema After Cinema (2024). She has curated numerous film and visual arts programs, including Jumping Frames – Hong Kong International Movement-image Festival, Hong Kong Retrospective Documentary Film Festival: From the 80s to 1997, and Macao Experimental Cinema. She also serves on the boards of Videotage and Unlock Dancing Plaza.

Frankie Tam Kwong Yuen is a Hong Kong screenwriter and director. He is President of the Hong Kong Screenwriters’ Guild and Creative Director of Media Asia Entertainment Information Group. Gallants received the Guild's 2010 Recommended Screenplay Award and earned him a Best Screenplay nomination at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards. Lazy Hazy Crazy brought him a 2016 Golden Horse Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, and he won Best Screenplay at the 24th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards in 2018 for God of War. The Sparring Partner received the Guild's 2022 Recommended Screenplay Award and earned him a Best Screenplay nomination at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards. He recently produced and wrote the AI-assisted animation Tuen Mun vs. Tin Shui Wai, a Jury's Choice selection of the third Future Animation programme.