Film screenings back in the news again even while there's so much to report about what's going on in Hong Kong

Hong Kong can look really calm on the surface still

 

But, truly, it was not so long ago that things like this happened, and 

their reverbations most definitely still are being felt (Picture taken at 

the World Press Photo Exhibition the same day that I took the one above it)

 

Last week was such a terrible week for Hong Kong that I've still been fighting to get back to an even emotional keel in the days that have followed.  One way I've been doing so has been to fill my head with thoughts about movies -- particularly those I recently viewed at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival (and writing reviews about them).  But the fact of the matter is that even thinking about movies can get me worrying about the deteriorating political situation here.

A reminder: one of the offerings due to open the Hong Kong International Film Festival this year ended up being withdrawn for "technical reasons" (the Mainland Chinese euphemism for censorship).  And on the same day (March 29th), it was announced that the Academy Awards ceremony would not be shown on TV in Hong Kong for the first time since 1969.  (It remains to be seen if the Oscars will indeed be viewable online in Hong Kong -- as many people are expecting -- or whether further internet censorship will come to Hong Kong on April 26th (next Monday).)

 

In addition, earlier in the month, what would have been the first screenings of 2019 Hong Kong Polytechnic University siege documentary, Inside the Red Brick Wall, in a commercial setting were cancelled after pro-Beijing mouthpiece Wen Wei Po called attention to, and criticized, those plans.  And today saw another pro-Beijing newspaper, Ta Kung Pao, and pro-Beijing legislative councillor, Holden Chow, mounting a similar attack on the plans by the pro-democracy Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) to privately screen the 2020 Hong Kong Film Critics Society Best Film awardee and two other protest documentaries, Eternal Springs in the Mountains (about the police siege of the Chinese University of Hong Kong) and the Golden Horse-nominated Taking Back the Legislature (about the storming of the Legislative Council on July 1st, 2019).

 

As has now become too sadly predictable, the private screening of Inside the Red Brick Wall that was scheduled to take place today has been cancelled -- or, at the very least, postponed; this after six officers from the Communication Authority went at the office of the Confederation of Trade Unions late in the afternoon and asked its representative to provide details of the screening.  One wonders whether this documentary (together with the likes of Taking Back the Legislature and Eternal Springs in the Mountains -- the last of which I can't find any English language information for) will ever get screened again in Hong Kong despite their not actually having been officially banned by the authorities (as yet). 

 

Amidst a climate of fear that descended upon Hong Kong after the coming into effect of China's national security law for Hong Kong, what we are seeing far more is self-censorship than official censorship, for now.  And it is not just the world of film festivals, awards and documentaries that are affected.  

 

Just today, we've seen veteran political commentator Michael Chugani announce that he's quitting most of his journalist posts in Hong Kong (and stating that "We all know that there are red lines, and I just want to think carefully [about] what these red lines mean for me, so that’s why I’m taking a break").  With another veteran journalist, Stephen Vines, recently having been dropped as a regular current affairs commentator on RTHK's Morning Brew programme after more than ten years, we could have done with more rather than less of Chugani's voice; and this even more so when one factors in the (self?) silencing of the likes of journalist-turned-politician-turned political prisoner Claudia Mo, and fellow pro-democrats Alvin Yeung and Ray Chan -- all of whom appear to have deleted their social media accounts while behind bars.  

Speaking of RTHK: Its Hong Kong Connection: Who Owns the Truth? episode about the July 21st, 2019, Yuen Long mob attacks has won the Kam Yiu-yu Press Freedom Award but the public broadcaster has announced that it will reject the prize!  Also today has come new of pro-democracy Reverend Lo Hing-choi having tendered his resignation yesterday from his post as the leader of the biggest umbrella group of Baptist churches in Hong Kong; and, for the second day in a row, of a pro-democracy district councillor having decided to step down (with North District Councillor Sea Yuen and Kowloon City District Councillor Timothy Lee adding to the growing list of resignations among pro-democracy district councillors elected to their positions just one and half years ago).       

 

In general, it's easy to conclude, as per the title of a Reuters special report out today, Hong Kong activists are retreating as China-style justice comes to the city.  So those who have not given up and are trying to fight back or at least resist are truly to be admired.  I think here of those good members of the League of Social Democrats who still are manning their "Free All Political Prisoners" stall (which was set up today in Causeway Bay), and every single Hong Konger who is still doing such as continuing to support the Yellow Economic Circle and helping provide financial and moral support to Hong Kong's political prisoners.

 

And then there's Jimmy Lai, Martin Lee and Albert Ho -- who have decided to appeal against their convictions and sentences for their roles in an anti-government protest on August 18, 2019 (and, in the case of Lai, also against the 14 month jail sentence he was handed for taking part in an unauthorised march in Wan Chai on August 31, 2019).  In doing so, they aren't only continuing to put up a fight but signalling that they still want to believe in the existence of rule of law in Hong Kong.  At this point in time, many will see their stance as Quixotic but, truly, one can't help rooting for them all the same.