The ten works of Open Category record today’s city and the values of life. Films are used as a medium to retain all the sentiments of youth and ageing, hope and despair. The vivid images bring the audience into the film to experience the moment as if it’s just happened. Either imaginative or realistic cinematographic style gives a glimpse of someone’s lives among the crowd with a sense of déjà vu. More importantly, family, love, friendship and brotherhood in life are also documented.
Desperation and disorientation leave indelible marks on the youth. In their works, the scars at heart can be spotted. They depict the unforgettable incidents: suicides, bullies and touching moments. Without any fear, they record the unpolished pulse of the city. Through the videos of the youths, their sincerity reveals the perceived value about the living world.
The works of Animation Category are connections between the artists and the cities, telling us stories of life. Humans are forgetting their relationship with the environment. Each cut with different colour tones and brushwork comprehensively depicts the story about life and death across different regions. Each stroke, regardless of its haziness or clarity, recalls similar memories. People are always confused about death. The animation works remind us of a crucial fact we always forget: to let go in order to receive.
Though the style of works by the ten directors from Asia varies a lot, they respond to the present, raising questions from social media, internet trolling, drug deal, women’s issue to the connection between nature and humans. Through the unique scenes captured by the camera, the livelihood around all the corners of Iran, Turkey, Philippines, Nepal and other places are brought to light.
There are works as unique as the shining stars, just like the 15 films and animations recommended by the jurors of different categories. Two free screenings will be held for the public to enjoy the selected works.
Since 1991, Mak Siu-fung has started working on different types of creations. In 2007, he began creating hand-drawn animation Back to Base. He needs his own space for working independently on his creations, simplifying his life only for creating arts. Over the last thirteen years, he has been creating each piece of work solely on his own. Highly concentrated and diligent, he makes precise calculation of his works, which turn out to be unconventional at all. Having all the compositions and storylines in his mind, he always follows a step-by-step sequence for creating his work. Back to Base consists of 13,000 drawings which took him two years to finish. Apart from screening his animations in Filmorphosis this year, his manuscripts will also be exhibited. Each of his sketches shows us Mak’s unlimited animation world.
Mak Siu-fung
Mak is an unconventional comic artist and sculptor in the early 1990s. He works on different types of arts including comics, illustrations and three-dimensional sculptures. In 1993, he went to Japan to study traditional hand-drawn animation. In 1996, he returned to Hong Kong and worked as an art editor in a newspaper publisher. He left the company in 2002 and established the brand United Planet which mainly produced figure display and comics. In 2011, he participated in the 16th ifva Awards and won the Gold Award of Animation Category. Since then, he has been focusing on creating animations.
How can we survive if the modern society collapses suddenly and lives become primitive again? Japanese director Yaguchi Shinobu wrote and directed the film Survival Family. At the beginning it was all sarcastic and hilarious. As the story develops, the road movie reviews the glory of humanity in the midst of disaster and shows the transformation of the family. It makes you smile with tears while getting more touching towards the ending.
Programme Reschedule Announcement
The creative filmmaking project “All About Us” organised by ifva comes to its tenth year. It always stands with ethnic minority youths and encourages them to use videos to defend diversified voices in the society. Whether they are crazy ideas in mind, observations and feelings of daily life, dreams and realities in youth, the colourful world of ethnic minority youths are all shown in their own videos! If creativity is not limited by skin colour, how can there be only one kind of voice among “Hongkongers”?
Programme Reschedule Announcement
Racial harmony means people with different racial background seeks common ground while holding differences, and respects each other. But nowadays, is it more like the ethnic culture being engulfed by the mainstream value gradually? In the past ten years, the creative media education programme “All About Us” for ethnic minority youths has trained them on video production and brought out the best from them. We believe that to achieve harmony, we have to conserve the culture of all and spend time together to facilitate a better mutual understanding. “All About Us” has come to its tenth year. Our instructor, Director Chan Hon-yan directed and co-produced the film The Poem of Pakistan with experienced members of the programme. It depicts the struggle and experience of ethnic minority youths living locally.
The Poem of Pakistan
Chan Hon-yan
Hamid, a young Pakistani, is an insurance and investment broker. No matter how hard he tries, he is always being discriminated by people around him. He only gets along well with his colleague Wai. Every day he works hard to earn a living and even has to make some shortcuts sometimes. One day, Hamid gets annoyed by another Pakistani Khan because of medical claim issue but then meets Khan’s son Hamza who loves Pakistani literature. It brings back Hamid’s memory of his homeland and family back there.
Chan Hon-yan
Chan Hon-yan graduated from the School of Creative Media of City University of Hong Kong and is currently pursuing an MFA at Taipei National University of the Arts. His work Old Man and A Dog (2019) won the Best Screenplay and Audience Award of the 13th Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival, which has also been nominated for Golden Horse Award for Best Live Action Short Film and Taipei Film Awards for Best Short Film. His other works include The Backpackers and Close to Heaven.
Programme Reschedule Announcement
Due to the spread of novel coronavirus, ifva x Duddell’s x KEF - In/Visible Sound of the City originally scheduled to be held on 21 Feb 2020 (Fri) at the KEF Music Gallery will be cancelled. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The programme will be rescheduled, and further announcements will be made at our Facebook page. Stay tuned!
The images and music of films and the sounds of cities are inseparable. This year, ifva will collaborate with Duddell’s and KEF again to present “In/Visible Sound of the City” showcasing a series of independent short films with music elements added. The 23rd ifva Awards Open Category Finalist Horizon is chosen for the screening and Dr. Wong Chi-chung, an experienced music critic and radio DJ is invited to be the moderator. Before watching the film, the audience can enjoy the music specially selected by Dr. Wong which reflect the present time and can empty one’s mind from the distracting thoughts. In the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city, the audience will embark on a sensory journey, just like in a parallel universe.
HONG KONG SHORT FILM: NEW ACTION EXPRESS (NAE) aims at broadening the horizons of Hong Kong creative talent and helping them gain exposure abroad. Seven award-winning titles, screened at 2020 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and Market, are brought back to local platform for us to savour the stories magically illustrated with moving images.
Disclaimer: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) are those of the project organisers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Communications and Creative Industries Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, Create Hong Kong, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.
