Local creativity penetrates every corner of the city and can even be found in convenience stores! The 16th ifva teamed up with 7-Eleven and invited seven award winners from past years including Heiward MAK, KWOK Zune, TSUI Ka-hei, Vincent CHUI, CHAN Tze-wai, Stella SO, and WONG Ching-po to take part in this year’s greenlab project, with each director making a short film set in convenience stores. Utilising live action images and animation, these directors have managed to capture our everyday experiences and evoke our collective memories with these innovative shorts. On shelves filled with goods, in front of the soft drink dispenser, the cash register, even the one-way mirror on the storeroom door—audiences can surely recognise snippets of their everyday lives in these stories. By developing different platforms for independent shorts, ifva hopes to strengthen and extend our creative forces and allow local talents to blossom.
Work by MAK Hei-yan, Heiward
Eleven to Seven
Hong Kong / Col / 5′ 30″ / In Cantonese with no subtitles
She is a white collar working from 7am to 11pm. Every day before and after work, she would wander into the convenience store for a little breather.
He is a part-time worker in the convenience store from 11pm to 7am.
Every night he is waiting, waiting for her to show up.
Sunrise, sunset; speculating at nights; in a 24-hour convenience store, time is flipped and flipped…
Artist’s Statement
I am a night owl. Every late night I would go to the 7-Eleven near my office and buy something. I would say hi to the same girl who works there.
Sometimes I pass by after work in the morning, she is still there, looking pretty awake. I think I never see her get off (smile).
The 24-hour 7-Eleven inspires me to create this story about two persons in a time-misplaced place.
Work by KWOK Zune
Single Serving Friends
Hong Kong / Col / 4′ 30″ / In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles
Just about dawn every day, the young shopkeeper meets her “friend”, the magazine delivery boy, the one she can only talk to all night long. Tonight is going to be their last night to meet. Nothing really happens, as usual.
Artist’s Statement
At a particular time and place we always meet someone with whom we develop a kind of relationship.
There might be chances that a pair could get closer, but for some reasons they do not really make the move; and instead they drift apart. For me, a convenience store is a place for this kind of come-and-go.
Work by TSUI Ka-hei
Taste the Life
Hong Kong / Col / 3′ / In Cantonese with no subtitles
Get away from the bustles
Let the music of leisure float
Even it’s insignificantly short
A cup of Slurpee and a jazz song
Simple yet carry life long
And joy is everywhere we want
Artist’s Statement
Living in a busy town, many people forgot how to enjoy life
Try to look at your soul, try to live your life
Work by CHUI Wan-shun, Vincent
鞋字半邊X
Hong Kong / Col / 3′ 30″ / In Cantonese with no subtitles
How do you define a good shopkeeper? Not only do you have to be persuasive and get people to buy “on special” items like candy, cuttlefish and figurines, you should also have good command of English and promote ifva shorts! Afterwards you want to make your own indie short?
No problem. You can find your leading cast at your neighborhood 7-Eleven.
If there is a moral to this story, perhaps it is that one should not leave right away after making your purchase at 7-Eleven, because sometimes heartwarming surprises await you.
Artist’s Statement
There are many 7-Eleven in Wanchai; three or four of which are just near to Foo Tak Building. Usually I go there for cigarettes or hot bottles of Vitasoy during shooting in the cold winter nights. I really don’t know what to do when working at night if there is no more convenience store around me.
Work by CHAN Tsz-wai, Wallis
Two Girls in a Night
Hong Kong / Col / 3′ / In Cantonese with no subtitles
This is a story about two girls who look alike. There are chances that people from two different worlds will meet in 7-Eleven. A girl from summer and another girl from winter wander into a lonely night. One feels sad, another lost, they walk into a convenience store. They see one another with a glass door in between them. They also see themselves.
Artist’s Statement
I remember there’s always a 7-Eleven around the corner. It connects people from different worlds and even different times.
Work by WONG Ching-po
JENNY@7-11
Hong Kong / Col / 4′ 30″ / In Cantonese with no subtitles
In a convenience store, the door of the storage room is a two-way mirror, reflecting a romantic story of love at first sight. Through the opening one can see someone fixing her hair, a man sweet-talking on the phone, another person munching on snacks after getting dumped. The saleswoman invites a man in suit to tango, and their bodies are reflected in the two-way mirror, their bodies leaving a moist impression on the wooden door. The man’s voice causes the girl’s mood to rise and fall with it. “Can we start again?” Perhaps his words can be applied not just to the saleswoman.
Artist’s Statement
I remember once when I was at a convenience store, I saw a shopkeeper come out of the storage room just as a woman was checking herself out in the mirror, causing her much embarrassment. My story was born when I thought about the possibility that shopkeepers at 7-Eleven may be familiar with every customer that stands in front of that two-way mirror of the storage room.
