From the Chinese Documentary Festival, three filmmakers reveal why Hong Kong is no documentary director’s paradise

‘In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director,’ said Alfred Hitchcock. Not exactly: Documentary filmmakers cannot make up facts, but they can present their viewpoints (or lack of them) through their lens. In the midst of the Chinese Documentary Festival 2009, we talk to three local documentary filmmakers about their work in Hong Kong.

Tammy Cheung
Director, organizer of the festival and founder of Visible Record, which specializes in distributing and promoting documentaries in HK

Tammy Cheung released her documentary debut Invisible Women in 1999 and decided to develop a full-time documentary-making career in 2002. Secondary School, an 85-minute work using a direct cinema approach to follow daily routines in two well-respected Hong Kong schools, provoked heated discussion on Hong Kong’s rigid education system and, like it or not, Cheung has been the single iconic figure in documentary filmmaking since then. ‘That is a bit tragic because I am quite old already,’ jokes the director, now in her 50s.

She introduced the festival to Hong Kong last year and I wonder what she was able to carry over from that experience into this year’s edition. Cheung is quick to answer with a laugh. ‘Not enough time and funding,’ she says. ‘We started promotion for last year’s festival very late, which is a shame because I think the films were very good.’ So some of those films will return to this year’s festival and screen in the Special Selection section. And for the Competition Section (partitioned into shorts and features), the 12 judges – double last year’s number – will include director Ann Hui, film critic Law Karr and Taiwanese writer Lung Ying Tai.

The increase in judge numbers means a wider variety of films, as judges’ preferences are often quite dissimilar. Education issues, the lives of migrant workers, the stories of a peasant doctor and a tattoo artist are some of the subjects this year. On the selection criteria: ‘Some judges consider the subject matter the most important and addressing important issues, such as an education problem, may have earned the film extra credit, while others may think the technique and whether the film is moving is more important. But every competition is like that – it is rather subjective,’ Cheung says.

Yet it is not difficult to notice that all the finalists in the competition are from the Mainland and Taiwan. Cheung admits there were few local entries in the competition and their quality was, sadly, lower than that of works from Taiwan and China. ‘Hong Kong is very results oriented. Documentary making is not profitable and you have to be interested in what’s happening in the society, which is why so few people are making documentaries in Hong Kong,’ the director says. ‘On the contrary so many things are happening in China, a filmmaker can easily pick up a subject and work on it.’ Yet she is optimistic about the growth of documentaries in the SAR, citing Cheung King Wai and Chan Wai Yee as exciting young directors. High schools and universities also welcome screenings, as documentaries make good source material for teaching in liberal studies. ‘It’s good if students start watching documentaries at a young age – if people are not used to seeing documentaries, they will just associate them with news programmes or programmes about animals,’ she says. ‘If they start watching at school, they will not be scared by them.’

Cheung King Wai
Director of All’s Right with the World and KJ; screenplay writer of Night and Fog

As I talk to Cheung King Wai, director of the critically acclaimed All’s Right with the World and KJ, the word “cliché” keeps appearing in the conversation – it is one thing he seems obsessed to avoid in his documentaries. All’s Right with the World follows five underprivileged families during Chinese New Year in 2007 and reveals the inequality and hidden poverty in our society. It premiered at the 2008 HKIFF and is still regularly screened. His latest work, KJ, explores how prodigy pianist Huang Jiazheng faces the world and himself.

Cheung is also the writer of Ann Hui’s Night and Fog, although to him there is not much difference between a full-length feature and a documentary. ‘They are both a representation of one’s perspectives on issues. They are both films. Whether you make a feature film or a documentary, you still wonder whether people would think your film worth watching 10 – or even 100 – years later, or if it has already become a cliché.’ He says he wants to offer an alternative perspective on issues our society tends to simplify into black and white. He cites The Godfather as an example, saying a lot of gangster films after the Coppola classic were just a shadow of the iconic film. ‘So seeing The Godfather itself is enough. I hope my films can stand through time. Say with All’s Right with the World, people can see the status of a certain group of people in 2007 even if they watch the film 10 years later – I think that’s the meaning of it.’

Cheung’s next work, about a Mainland immigrant in the SAR, is currently in production – he has filmed his subject all the way to her home in Fu Jian. He says he doesn’t want to harp on about the lack of support for documentary making, yet he does have some insight into why – compared with the Mainland and Taiwan, for instant – Hong Kong releases so few real-life films. Our city has never been a ruminative one. ‘People don’t challenge the state of play in our society. I am not saying we need a revolution, but we do need the mentality.’
See KJ on May 28 at 7:30pm at the HK Arts Centre Agnes b Cinema

Chan Wai Yee
Director of Gay or Not? (Bangkok International Film Festival and Bucharest’s B-est International Film Festival) and The District Councillor

The two veterans Tammy Cheung and Cheung King Wai might cite a lack of awareness among the younger generation but there are exceptions. Chan Wai Yee, a final-year student at the University of Hong Kong, is one. Her first taste of documentary making, the 22-minute Gay Or Not? co-directed with fellow classmate Lou Yee Nam, proved a success when it first stirred discussion in Hong Kong in 2004 and later screened in film festivals in Germany, Romania and Thailand. Originally a project for a high-school extra-curriculum activity, the film grew out of a rumour of the homosexuality of a pair of male buddies and went on to explore the attitude of today’s youth to sexuality.

Curiosity is what keeps the young director going. For her first film she was curious why people – her schoolmates to be exact – would base their judgements of someone’s sexuality on a few external incidents and whether such criteria are generally reflected in our society. Her latest work, The District Councillor, which will be screened at the Chinese documentary festival, chronicles former social worker and district councillor Andrew Wan’s failed attempt in the 2004 Legislative Council election: This time she is curious how someone would give up a well-paid job and devote himself to politics, ‘not for fame or money’.

The success of Gay or Not? has encouraged Chan – who admits that previously she never seriously thought of becoming a filmmaker – to devote herself to documentary making after her graduation this summer. She even has her own success strategy and is actively involved in CNEX (meaning Chinese Next), an NGO of professionals from the Mainland, Taiwan and HK who aim to produce 10 documentaries a year – which means that in a decade, contemporary China will be comprehensively characterized by 100 films.

However, her priority is to promote documentaries in Hong Kong. ‘I can make my own films full time but I won’t be a big influence. I may make many films but audiences may not know where to see them or even know about their existence,’ she says. ‘Hong Kongers simply don’t make it a habit to watch documentaries.’ She is convinced a group of locals do enjoy such films, but have no idea where to find them.

At first, Chan hesitated about embracing this profession that quite obviously would never bring her big pay cheque, yet an interview with Legislative Councillor Leung Yiu Chung enlightened her. ‘I don’t know if all will work out, but I have just graduated. It is not like I will be losing my whole life savings or whatever,’ she says. ‘I’ve got nothing to lose.’
See The District Councillor on May 29 at 7:30pm at the HKAC Agnes b Cinema

Other Festival Highlights
Homeless FC
Director: Lynn Lee, James Leong
May 30, 4pm, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity
The directors follow HK’s Dawn Team, a football team formed by a group of marginalized men, to the Homeless World Cup in Cape Town. Winner of last year’s competition.

The 7th Medical Ward
Director: Zhang Tian Hui
May 19, 7:30pm and May 27, 7:30pm, HK Arts Centre
Mental patients abandoned by their families and society and without an identity or job are given free treatment by the 7th Medical Ward in Xiamen.

El Salvador Journal
Director: Ho Chao-ti
May 16, 2pm; May 22, 7:30pm,
HK Arts Centre
Chen Hsin-Hsing, professor at Taiwan’s Shih Hsin University, visited El Salvador to work with union leader Gilberto Garcia to solve a crisis after a Taiwan-owned factory closed down.

Doctor Ma’s Country Clinic
Director: Cong Feng
May 16, 6:30pm (Chinese subtitles only); May 23, 4:15pm,
HK Arts Centre
As farmers in Gansu wait to see Dr Ma in his clinic, they talk about their lives, villages and the people they know.

The Train to My Home Town
Director: Ai Xiaoming
May 14, 7:30pm; May 20, 7:30pm, HK Arts Centre
An unprecedented snap of snow halted the Beijing-Guangzhou rail service before the 2008 spring festival. Some of the migrant workers stuck at the train station lost their lives waiting for the thaw.

All films are with English subtitles except otherwise stated. Tickets $50 from URBTIX, 2734 9009. For full schedule, visit www.visiblerecord.com.