The Crisis and Opportunity :CNEX Documentary Screening Tour was held from November 2012 to June 2013.
[The Good Lab] 2013.06.18
Screening + Sharing
Film: Millionaire in Checkfun + Back on the Street
Date: 2013.06.18 (Tue)
Time: 19:30-21:00
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest: Mr. Wong Siu Pong ( Back on the Street Director)
* Mandarin & Cantonese with Chi & Eng subtitles, free admission.
Millionaire in Checkfun
Taiwan / 2011 / 16min / FU Yue ★ CNEX Production
The Check Fun Store is an innovative business model. Every store is divided into hundreds of small checks to display and sell a wide range of creative products provided by people who rent these checks. Thanks to its risk diversification nature, the check fun store business model proliferated in Taiwan when the financial crisis hit in 2007 to carry people through the global economic downturn. To start up a business in this tiny scale encouraged many people to give it a try that they were using their leisure hours or unemployment to create their own merchandises and hoped that these new products would succeed. This documentary film records the start-up stories of three check owners in a cheerful way. It also witnesses the ups-and-downs of the check fun stores alongside the overall economic ups-and-downs. “Stone’s” family is running an auto parts manufacturing factory. She helps out in the factory while using the early morning and leisure hours after dinner to do her hand-made flower bouquets. Ya-Xin’s husband is selling used cars. She works at the dealership, too; meanwhile, she makes socks dolls after work. Li-Hui’s current job is to alter clothes and make uniforms at home. She loves to make bags by hands to get away from her boring works. The worse the economy fares, the more popular the check fun stores are. On the other hand, once the economy starts to recover, the challenges become bigger for these check business undertakers. In this documentary film, we see how these witty hardworking check fun stores owners and the check leaseholders interacted, trying to pursue opportunities to redirect their lives through the check fun store experiences. Though the chances for them to become rich by such a small investment is extremely slim, the check fun store experiences win them senses of achievements and self esteem.
Back on the Street
HK / 2010 / 47min / Wong Siu Pong
◎2011Chinese Documentary Festival
◎2012Art De vivre College Student Film Festival
◎2012Breaking Arts Festival
“Rhythm Attack” is a street dance group formed 10 years ago. They are powerful dancers and outspoken critics of businessmen, the entertainment industry and even fellow dancers. Neither do they care about praise nor disdain. They just chill and try to make a killing, B-boy style.
[The Good Lab] 2013.06.08
Screening
Film: China Gate
Date: 2013.06.08 (Sat)
Time: 19:30-20:45
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
* Mandarin with Chi and Eng Subtitles, free admission.
China Gate
China / 2011 / 72min / WANG Yang
★ CNEX Production
◎2011 International Leipzig Festival For Documentary and Animated Film
◎2012 8th ZagrebDox festival INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
◎2012 4th DMZ Docs – Korean International Documentary Festival, International Competition
◎2012 South Taiwan Film Association South Award—Chinese Films Competition
◎2012 Chinese Documentary Festival
China Gate tells the story of young Chinese fight to change their fate through studying. Right before dawn, students in Huining have already started their self-studying session; hard working youngsters have filled up the space of school ground. This is one of the most poverty-stricken counties in Western China; here people’s only hope is in education, as the way to change their social status. Therefore all their effort point towards the College Entrance Examination, the process is like going through a gate, those who pass can study at urban universities, and have the chance to build a better life. During the same winter season in Beijing, a graduate student faces a big decision. Should he keep trying to survive in the big city or get back to his countryside home? The exhausted faces at the Beijing underground seem to be revealing the truth about their distance in between. The student comes to see the flag ceremony at Tiananmen Square, where the pulsing symbol of the nation lies. However it is not giving any answer to his anxiety. Shanghai’s nightfall sparkles with its prosperity, but one graduate from Shanghai music conservatory tells her struggle of finding a place in society. The memories of handwork from early age and the high hope of parents seem like yesterday, the home video footage of her sitting in front of the piano at young age looked like a bittersweet joke. Jumping back to the present, in a playful early learning institute, it seems more like confusion appearing on these children’s face. Is this a new educational method that gives the answer to the high hopes of parents?
[The Good Lab]2013.05.21
Screening+Sharing
Film: A Sam
Date: 2013.05.21 (Tue)
Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 5500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest: Mr. Indie Chung ( Psychologist, Lecturer, Strategic Planner )
* Mandarin with Chi and Eng Subtitles, free admission.
A-Sam
China / 2011 / 85min / LO Li-mei
★ CNEX Production
Sam is 25 and has been living with his parents in Shenzhen for 20 years now. Sam has worked in the film industry for 3 years now. He wants to become the next ZHANG Yi-mou but his parents just want Sam to find a good job and to stay close to home. At home, Sam is close to his mom but distant from his dad. Right now, Sam feels that his life is not going well. His career is unsuccessful, his family life is not a source of comfort, and even his girlfriend betrays him. Full of hurt, and in the name of better opportunities, Sam, like many before him who migrated north, leaves for Beijing. Sam believes that Beijing has stories to tell and better lives to lead. What Sam does not anticipate is the hardship that comes with a big city. Instantly, and without his parents’ shielding, Sam’s shyness and weakness are magnified. Lacking the ability to maneuver complicated social circles, he is marginalized by his peers in the film industry. For the first time, Sam experiences profound loneliness and immense pressures from city life. For the first time, Sam sees the widening gap between dream and reality. Even in relationships Sam cannot escape the tragedy of getting dumped. With all the “could”, “would” and “should”, Sam cannot figure out what he truly desires. He is getting more and more confused and yet still not realize how fragile his dream is. Like a bird with its wings clipped off, Sam couldn’t even fly to a safe hiding place. A heart full of defeat Sam vacations at a place called Luku Lake. Sam feels a sense of freedom that hasn’t been felt for some time. The blue sky, the turquoise lake, the lush valley, people’s smiles, warm air, a child’s innocence…this is what Sam wants. At Luku Lake Sam is able to reflect and think about everything he has and everyone around him, including his parents. But no matter how blue the sky, it can never replace the darkness that hovers over Sam’s life, because the realities of Sam’s everyday life beckons him. When everyone around him basks in happiness, he walks alone, unable engage. The hotel owner Jesse tells Sam, to be a man means to dream big and act big. Sam is incapable of that. A vacation is a respite from the daily grind but ultimately, Sam returns to what he knows and to his family. He starts to speak to the father whom he hasn’t spoken to in 20 years, and he goes back to work and to singing karaoke.
[The Good Lab] 2013.05.11
Screening+Sharing
Film: Where Should I Go?
Date: 2013.05.11 (Sat)
Time: 14:30-16:00
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 5500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest: Ms. Yeung Mei (Executive Director, New Women Arrivals League)
* English with Chinese subtitles, free admission.
Where Should I Go?
China / 2010 / 60min / LI Jun-hu
★ CNEX Production
◎2011 ShangHai TV Festival Screening 2011
◎2011 Selected in Chinese Documentary Festival 2011
Two ordinary families from the countryside, for the fate of the next generation, have left their hometowns for the city, where they begin to seek their dream of a wandering life/begin their wandering life in pursuit of their dreams. However, things do not develop as expected. Exorbitant school fees kept Zhang Zhi Li’s child locked outside of the city’s school gates, leaving her with no option other than to teach her son how to read while she works at the flea market every day. Her two daughters, left at their countryside homestead out from under the watch of their parents, find it difficult to take care of themselves. The oldest daughter has already considered stopping her studies, often skipping school and cutting classes. In order to help them forget about their own hardships after her husband passed away in a car accident, and more so to become dignified citizens of the city, Yang Xiu Qing decides to lets her slightly older daughter leave school to work in a bar, like herself, to help earn money to support her son’s studies. Yang Xiu Qing’s biggest concern is not her son’s present tuition, but that his school fees will become increasingly expensive. Yang Xiu Qing will have to hand over more than a few thousand yuan in fees to send him to a good high school, and then there is always college to worry about. The tremendous gap between reality and dreams has left the two families tightly embraced by poverty. Exactly which road should they follow? Should they return to the countryside to start over, or should they take one last stand against fate and stay in the city? Neither choice seems to be very easy……
[CUHK] 2013.04.23
Screening+Sharing
Film: On the Edge of Light and Shadow
Date: 2013.04.23 (Tue)
Time: 18:30-21:30
Venue: Sir Run Run Shaw Hall, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Guest: Ms. Nancy Loo ( Art Education Worker )
*English with Chinese Subtitles, free admission.
About Guest Speaker
Ms. Nancy Loo is one of Hong Kong’s most versatile artists, as pianist, radio programme host, actress and writer. She was a recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award in 1978. She currently teaches piano at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and The Chinese University of Hong Kong and is often invited to host music talks and master-classes and to serve as a juror for piano competitions. She is also the member of Committee on Community Support for Rehabilitated Offenders, providing a new rehabilitation service for young inmates.
On the Edge of Light and Shadow
Brazil / 2009 / 150min / Luciana BURLAMAQUI
◎2010 Best Latin American Feature Documentary, International Cinema Festival in Guadalajara
◎2009 Audience Award for Best Documentary, Biarritz Latin American Cinema and Cultures Festival, France
On The Edge of Light and Shadow looks into violence and human nature with the stories of an actress who has devoted her life to humanizing the penal system, the rap duo 509-E with Dexter and Afro-X inside the extinct Carandiru, at that time the largest prison in Latin America, and a judge who believes in a more dignified way to rehabilitate inmates. The documentary follows the life of these characters during seven years, beginning in the year 2000.
[The Good Lab] 2013.04.21
Screening+Sharing
Film: Falling from the Sky
Date: 2013.04.21 (Sun)
Time: 14:00-16:30
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest: Mr. Lam Yuk Wah (Experienced Media Professional)
*Mandarin with Simplified Chi and Eng Subtitles, free admission.
Falling From the Sky
China / 2009 / 124min / ZHANG Zan-bo
The untouched Suining county of Hunan province is an ordinary but magical place. As the theoretical falling area of the rocket debris launched from the Xichang Rocket Center, it has received rocket debris dozens of times over a 20-year period since 1990. This mysterious and dangerous “extraterritorial guest” has disturbed the poor but peaceful life of the 160,000 local residents. The year of 2008 is the “Olympic year” and the “astronomic year” in China. Suining residents were anticipating the Olympics like the rest of the country. While they are proud of the increasing national power including the astronomic capabilities, they have to face the destiny that falls from the sky.
About Guest Speaker
Lam Yuk-wah, Peter is one of the most popular radio programme hosts and media personalities in Hong Kong. He has a wealth of over 30 years diversified experiences in the entertainment industry including programme production, acquisition and distribution for local TV stations, production companies and motion picture organizations. As a media expert, Peter has co-hosted the prime-time weekly public affairs programme, “Headliners”「頭條新聞」. Until September 2004, he had been a co-host of Hong Kong’s most popular talk show “Tea Cup in the Storm”「風波裡的茶杯」.
[HKUST]2013.04.17
Screening+Sharing
Film: Card Boom & Way of Fortune
Date: 2013.04.17 (Wed)
Time: 18:00-20:00
Venue: Tsang Shiu Tim Art Hall, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Guest: Prof. Francis T.LUI (Professor and Head, the HKUST Business School)
*Mandarin with Chinese Subtitles, free admission.
Card Boom
Taiwan / 2007 / 25min / LIN Hung-Chieh
★ CNEX Production
◎2008 The 1st New Asia Film Festival (Vancouver)
The film traces the consumption experiences of two extreme individuals, and takes the audience on a tour to explore the credit card phenomena in Taiwan: ZHENG San-he, the first Taiwanese “card slave” to successfully apply for bankruptcy. Not realizing what he had gotten into at first, ZHENG was startled to find himself owing millions of Taiwan Dollars (TWD). Pressure from banks and threats from asset management companies forced ZHENG into the vicious circle of sustaining one card with another; YANG Hui-ru, the first Taiwanese “card legend”who made a killing from a loophole in the credit card point program. YANG, with help from relatives and friends, took advantage of the loophole and accumulated huge amount of points through pooling together airline and consumer goods purchases. She then sold the points through online auctions. She earned over one million TWD before her card was canceled by the bank. Speaking from her own experiences, YANG Hui-ru advised card slaves to face reality: “Cut up the cards as soon as possible. The interest rate is too heavy. And don’t you think of paying back debt with more cards. It will only make yourself fall even deeper”.
Way of Fortune
China / 2007 / 73min / CHANG Chao-wei
★CNEX Production
◎2008The 1st New Asia Film Festival (Vancouver)
◎2008 Beijing Independent Film Festival
◎2009 The 1st VARIFAIR International Film
For the past 20 years or so, with the “white cat or black cat” theory from the Mainland China or the philosophy of struggling to win or taking the second place from the Four Asian Tigers, the Chinese people have made their fortune through exports and processing trade under the globalized framework in which Britain and America takes the lead. As a matter of fact, what has led to the current economic development among Chinese societies is something that has rarely been under discussion. For the last 1000 years or so, businessmen from Fujian and Guangzhou have been integrated into the global market. With great creativity, they have played the role of middleman in dealing with businessmen from various cultural backgrounds, thus becoming a major player in the global trade. They devoutly believe in the Goddess of the Sea: wherever there is a Matsu temple, it is either a trading port, capital of the colony, a concession area in history or a current Export Processing Zone and a Special Economic Zone. Such kind of a historical reality have formed the foundation of the current wealth of the Chinese people, but at the same time did they also bring some problems related to natural resources, brands, rural area, or the ecology in the process of following the western industrial civilization and becoming prosperous?
[CUHK] 2013.04.15
Screening+Sharing
Film: Hell and Back Again
Date: 2013.04.15 (Mon)
Time: 18:30-20:30
Venue: Sir Run Run Shaw Hall, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Guest: Ms. Lam Pik Kwan (Clinical Psychologist)
*English with Chinese Subtitles, free admission.
Hell and Back Again
USA / 2011 / 88min / Danfung DENNIS
◎2011 World Cinema Jury Prize, Cinematography Award, Sundance Film Festival
◎2011 Best Documentary, Moscow International Film Festival
From his embed with US Marines Echo Company in Afghanistan, photojournalist and filmmaker Danfung DENNIS reveals the devastating impact a Taliban machine-gun bullet has on the life of 25-year old Sergeant Nathan HARRIS. The film seamlessly transitions from stunning war reportage to an intimate, visceral portrait of one man’s personal struggle at home in North Carolina, where Harris confronts the physical and emotional difficulties of re-adjusting to civilian life with the love and support of his wife. Masterfully contrasting the intensity of the frontline with the unsettling normalcy of home, this documentary lays bare the true cost of war.
[The Good Lab]2013.04.02
Screening+Sharing
Film: A Gift for Father’s Day – The Tragedy of Hsiaolin Village Part 1
Date: 2013.04.02 (Tue)
Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest: Mr. Chan Man Luen Ying (President of Social Workers Across Borders)
*Mandarin with Chi and Eng Subtitles, free admission.
A Gift for Father’s Day – The Tragedy of Hsiaolin Village Part 1
Taiwan / 2011 / 90min / LO Shin-chieh、WANG Hsiu-ling
◎2011 Grand Prize and Best Documentary, Taipei Film Festival Taipei Awards
On August 8, 2009, Typhoon Morakot created havoc across Taiwan. It also obliterated the village of Hsiaolin, killing many who were sheltering from the storm. Was this tragedy the result of a natural disaster? Or was human negligence involved? The transbasin construction on the Tsengwen Reservoir was regarded by many as the chief culprit. The two main political parties did not engage in their usual finger pointing and opening of old wounds. To the call that “the residents of Hsiaolin Village should not die in vein,” politicians across party lines remained silent. Infants who will never grow up; children who will never go to school; sons and daughters who will never pray for their parents. One victim had just married into the village; others escaped by the skin of their teeth; yet others witnessed the moment the mountain moved. The typhoon took 410 lives in Hsiaolin Village alone, people who will forever remain buried under the earth. The storm made the village famous, and it became a target for people grubbing after a piece of the reconstruction budget. Disagreement caused survivors to be relocated to three different sites. But is their permanent home to be on Earth, or will it in Heaven?
About Guest Speaker
Mr. Chan Man Luen Ying
1996, Immigrated from mainland China.
2002, graduated from City University of Hong Kong as a Registered Social Worker, mainly focuses on new immigrants’ services, community development, and post-disaster emotional, spiritual support for victims.
2004, established Social Workers Across Borders with friends, and voluntarily served as the president of the organization until now.
Social Workers Across Borders Ltd. focuses on providing emotional, spiritual support for victims of nature disasters, and developing social work projects. We share the belief of “Borderless Humanity” by organizing voluntary services of professional social workers for communities and victims suffering from disasters. We’ve provided services in the disasters like: South Asian Tsunami; South China Blizzards; Indonesia Earthquake; Taiwan Floods; Qinghai Yushu Earthquake; Gausu Mudslide; Sichuan Earthquake; Yunan Yingjiang Earthquake; Japan Earthquake; Yunan Yiliang Earthquake.
[The Good Lab] 2013.03.23
Screening+Sharing
Film: Dragon Boat
Date: 2013.03.23 (Sat)
Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest: Mr. Cheung Ting Yuen, Alex (Chief Operating Officer in Sow Ideas Company Limited & Consultant of CUP Magazine Publishing Limited)
* Cantonese with Chi and Eng Subtitles, free admission.
About Guest Speaker
Cheung Ting Yuen, Alex
Obsessed with rice dumplings, but not with Qu Yuan. Believe in possibilities of lives, trust in rationalities of thoughts. Thought of entering the media field can change the world, but it changes himself indeed. Holding a swaying concept of country and nation, however, living on a blessed ground, the euthusiaism of making our place a little better is glowing, painful yet alluring. Wishing to find out a utopia of all through this sharing session, and how much efforts we are willing to put in.
Being the former Chief Editor of CUP Magazine Publishing Limited, Alex was responsible for printed media including CUP, Clip and Cuppa. Having been organizing publishing projects like the Double Talk Series (Authors: Michael Chugani & Chip Tsao), Pang Ho-cheung’s Prose Series, Audio Book “A Single Man” (Monologues by: Kam Kwok-leung), and The Vocabulary Builder for Liberal Studies (Coordinate with Roundtable Publishing), Alex currently works as Chief Operating Officer in Sow Ideas Company Limited and Consultant of CUP Magazine Publishing Limited.
Dragon Boat
China / 2010 / 84min / CAO Dan
★CNEX Production
◎2011 Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival, 2011
◎2011 The 3rd DMZ Korean International Documentary Festival, Asian Perspective section, 2011
◎2012 (London) Chinese Visual Festival, 3rd prize Audience Award, 2012
The annual dragon boat race was a major event for the villagers of Lianxi, on an island in southern China. With the construction of University Town in 2003, the villagers were forced to resettle. Today, the island has been turned into a mini city, and the former site of Lianxi Village has been transformed into a folk culture resort. Resettled villagers return to the site every year to continue their tradition of dragon boat racing. Will the dragon boat remain the link between the villagers and their former homeland? Lianxi village’s fate profoundly reflects the many ongoing encounters between native cultures and modernization in China today.
[HKUST]2013.03.22
Screening+Sharing
Film: Hell and Back Again
Date: 2013.03.22 (Fri)
Time: 18:00-20:00
Venue: Tsang Shiu Tim Art Hall, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Guest: Mr. Ng Hiu-tung (Senior Journalist & Founder of EyePress News Agency)
*English with Chinese Subtitles, free admission.
About Guest Speaker
Mr. Ng Hiu-tung
An award-winning journalist, Ng Hiu-tung has reported on the most important news events in Asia since the early-1990s, including the exile of Burmese students in the jungle following military crackdown by the junta, death of North Korea leader Kim Il-sung, the war in Afghanistan after 911, the U.S invasion of Iraq, the crisis in East Timor, the election of now jailed Chen Shui-bian as Taiwan president and a number of exclusive and award-winning news stories in China. Journalistic awards honored to Mr Ng’s news stories include The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Edward R. Murrow Award and the Human Rights Award. Mr Ng had worked for Hong Kong Daily News, South China Morning Post, TVB News, Cable TV News before he co-founded the EyePress News Agency (亞新社) in 2001.
Hell and Back Again
USA / 2011 / 88min / Danfung DENNIS
◎2011 World Cinema Jury Prize, Cinematography Award, Sundance Film Festival
◎2011 Best Documentary, Moscow International Film Festival
From his embed with US Marines Echo Company in Afghanistan, photojournalist and filmmaker Danfung DENNIS reveals the devastating impact a Taliban machine-gun bullet has on the life of 25-year old Sergeant Nathan HARRIS. The film seamlessly transitions from stunning war reportage to an intimate, visceral portrait of one man’s personal struggle at home in North Carolina, where Harris confronts the physical and emotional difficulties of re-adjusting to civilian life with the love and support of his wife. Masterfully contrasting the intensity of the frontline with the unsettling normalcy of home, this documentary lays bare the true cost of war.
[HKU] 2013.03.21
Screening+Sharing
Film: Connected : An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology
Date: 2013.03.21 (Thu)
Time: 18:00-20:00
Venue: CYP-P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building, Main Campus, The University of Hong Kong
Guest: Dr. HO Sik-ying, Petula (Associate Professor, Dept. of Social Work & Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong)
*English with Chinese Subtitles, free admission.
About Guest Speaker
Dr. Petula Ho is Associate Professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Hong Kong. Dr. Ho is one the few recognised experts in the relatively uncharted territory of gender and sexuality studies in Hong Kong and China. Dr. Ho’s main research and teaching interests are in the area of homosexuality, gender and sexuality issues. Dr. Ho has published numerous papers in international leading journals in sexuality and gender studies, including Sex Roles: A Journal of Sex Research, Journal of Sex Research, Violence Against Women, Sexualities, Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, and Women’s Studies International Forum, making important contributions to the development of a dynamic theory of gender and sexuality in the international arena that will help problematize feminist theories and resist Western hegemonies through empirical case studies that make connections between discourses, cultural practices, political economy, and social change. She also uses documentary films to explore the integration of arts and scholarship.
Connected : An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology
USA / 2011 / 82min / Tiffany SHLAIN
◎2011 Best Documentary, Maui Film Festival Audience Award
With wonderful heart and an impressive sense of scale, Connected explores the visible and invisible connections linking major issues of our time – the environment, consumption, population growth, technology, human rights, the global economy – while searching for her place in the world during a transformative time in her life. With humor, curiosity and irony, the SHLAIN family life merges with philosophy to create both a personal portrait and a proposal for ways we can move forward as a civilization. The film proposes that after centuries of declaring independence, it may be time for us to declare our interdependence instead.
[CityU] 2013.03.18
Screening+Sharing
Film: Where Should I Go?
Date: 2013.03.18 (Mon)
Time: 18:30-20:30
Venue: LT4 – Lecture Theatre 4, Floor 4, Academic 1, City University of Hong Kong
Guest: Prof Yep, Ray Kin-man （Assistant Head, Dept. of Public and Social Administration）
*Mandarin with Chi and Eng subtitles, free admission.
Where Should I Go?
China / 2010 / 60min / LI Jun-hu
★CNEX Production
◎2011 ShangHai TV Festival Screening 2011
◎2011 Selected in Chinese Documentary Festival 2011
Two ordinary families from the countryside, for the fate of the next generation, have left their hometowns for the city, where they begin to seek their dream of a wandering life/begin their wandering life in pursuit of their dreams. However, things do not develop as expected. Exorbitant school fees kept Zhang Zhi Li’s child locked outside of the city’s school gates, leaving her with no option other than to teach her son how to read while she works at the flea market every day. Her two daughters, left at their countryside homestead out from under the watch of their parents, find it difficult to take care of themselves. The oldest daughter has already considered stopping her studies, often skipping school and cutting classes. In order to help them forget about their own hardships after her husband passed away in a car accident, and more so to become dignified citizens of the city, Yang Xiu Qing decides to lets her slightly older daughter leave school to work in a bar, like herself, to help earn money to support her son’s studies. Yang Xiu Qing’s biggest concern is not her son’s present tuition, but that his school fees will become increasingly expensive. Yang Xiu Qing will have to hand over more than a few thousand yuan in fees to send him to a good high school, and then there is always college to worry about. The tremendous gap between reality and dreams has left the two families tightly embraced by poverty. Exactly which road should they follow? Should they return to the countryside to start over, or should they take one last stand against fate and stay in the city? Neither choice seems to be very easy…
[The Good Lab] 2013.03.12
Screening+Sharing
Film: Unfinished Italy
Date: 2013.03.12 (Tue)
Time: 19:30-20:45
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest:
Mr. Derrick To ( Designer、Master of Architecture )
Ms. Wiki Lo & Ms. Sze Ka Yan ( EmptySCape Member )
* Italian with Chi and Eng subtitles, free admission.
Unfinished Italy
Italy / 2010 / 35min / Benoit FELICI
◎2011 Best Italian Documentary Film, Rome Independent Film Festival
◎2011 First Prize of the Jury, Documenta Madrid
“Unfinished buildings have the beauty of this which could have been. Of this which is not yet there. Of this which might be one day.” (Inspired by “Le temps en ruines” by Marc AUGÉ) Italy, home of ruins: A foray into the unfinished, Italy’s most prominent architectural style between the end of WW2 and the present day. Buildings in a limbo between perfection and nothingness, given up on halfway through their construction, fallen into ruin before they were ever used, are an integral part of the Italian architectural landscape: Stadiums without audiences, hospitals without patients, theaters that after 50 years have not yet seen their premiere. This is a study of the potential value of unfinished buildings in Italy and of man’s ability to adapt them to his everyday needs. These ruins, whose future has already passed and whose present carries the taste of an eternal wait, act as an invitation to meditate about time.
[CityU]站 2013.03.11
Screening+Sharing
Film: Beijing Besieged by Waste
Date: 2013.03.11 (Mon)
Time: 18:30-20:30
Venue: LT4 – Lecture Theatre 4, Floor 4, Academic 1, City University of Hong Kong
Guest: Mr. Angus Wong （Policy Advocacy Manager, World Green Organisation ）
*Mandarin with Chi and Eng subtitles, free admission.
About the guest speaker
Angus Wong, World Green Organisation Policy Advocacy Manager.
*Six years project management and policy advocacy experience in Environmental NGOs with Friends of the Earth (HK) and WWF (HK)
*Former Policy Researcher of the Liberal Party
*Former Journalist, Metro Daily, SingPao and HKCyber
*BSSC, School of Communication (Hons) (Chinese Journalism), Hong Kong Baptist University
Beijing Besieged by Waste
China / 2010 / 83min / WANG Jiu-liang
While China’s rise, and its immense challenges, commands world attention, less light has been shed upon the colossal problem of waste generated by a burgeoning population, expanding industry, and rapacious urban growth. Photographer Wang Jiuliang turns his lens upon the grim spectacle of garbage, excrement, refuse, and wreckage heaped upon the landscape that surrounds China’s mega-metropolis, Beijing. Eking out a hazardous living within are the scavengers, mostly rural migrants, who struggle to maintain familial and cultural structures amid the bleakest of occupations. Wang shows the desecration of once-vital farmlands and rivers in the shadow of China’s gleaming cities and planes and super-trains; the unholy cycle of construction’s consumption and waste, and poignant images of the daily lives of scavengers who toil at their own peril.
[HKU] 2013.03.07
Screening+Sharing
Film: China Gate
Date: 2013.03.07 (Thu)
Time: 18:00-20:00
Venue: CYP-P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building, Main Campus, The University of Hong Kong
Guest: Mr. Poon Siu To ( Experienced Media Professional, Former Journalist, Commercial Radio Hong Kong Presenter)
*Mandarin with Chi and Eng Subtitles, free admission.
China Gate
China / 2011 / 72min / WANG Yang
★CNEX Production
◎2011 International Leipzig Festival For Documentary and Animated Film
◎2012 8th ZagrebDox festival INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
◎2012 4th DMZ Docs – Korean International Documentary Festival, International Competition
◎2012 South Taiwan Film Association South Award—Chinese Films Competition
◎2012 Chinese Documentary Festival
China Gate tells the story of young Chinese fight to change their fate through studying. Right before dawn, students in Huining have already started their self-studying session; hard working youngsters have filled up the space of school ground. This is one of the most poverty-stricken counties in Western China; here people’s only hope is in education, as the way to change their social status. Therefore all their effort point towards the College Entrance Examination, the process is like going through a gate, those who pass can study at urban universities, and have the chance to build a better life. During the same winter season in Beijing, a graduate student faces a big decision. Should he keep trying to survive in the big city or get back to his countryside home? The exhausted faces at the Beijing underground seem to be revealing the truth about their distance in between. The student comes to see the flag ceremony at Tiananmen Square, where the pulsing symbol of the nation lies. However it is not giving any answer to his anxiety. Shanghai’s nightfall sparkles with its prosperity, but one graduate from Shanghai music conservatory tells her struggle of finding a place in society. The memories of handwork from early age and the high hope of parents seem like yesterday, the home video footage of her sitting in front of the piano at young age looked like a bittersweet joke. Jumping back to the present, in a playful early learning institute, it seems more like confusion appearing on these children’s face. Is this a new educational method that gives the answer to the high hopes of parents?
[HKUST] 2013.03.06
Screening+Sharing
Film: Unfinished Spaces
Date: 2013.03.06 (Wed)
Time: 18:00-20:00
Venue: Tsang Shiu Tim Art Hall, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Guest: Mr. Cheng Yee Man & Ms. Clara Cheung
(Founders of C&G Artpartment & Members of Art Group “Project 226”)
*English & partial Spanish with Simplified Chinese & partial English Subtitles, free admission.
Unfinished Spaces
USA / 2011 / 86min / Alysa Nahmias, Benjamin Murray
In 1961, three young, visionary architects were commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to create Cuba’s National Art Schools on the grounds of a former golf course in Havana, Cuba. Construction of their radical designs began immediately and the school’s first classes soon followed. Dancers, musicians and artists from all over the country reveled in the beauty of the schools, but as the dream of the Revolution quickly became a reality, construction was abruptly halted and the architects and their designs were deemed irrelevant in the prevailing political climate. Forty years later the schools are in use, but remain unfinished and decaying.
About the guest speakers
Mr. Cheng Yee Man (Gum)
Gum was member of School Management Committee. He is a registered social worker, part-time lecturer of the Hong Kong Art School, founder of C & G Artpartment, chairman of a Hong Kong non-profit art group “Project 226”. Since 2000, he has curated more than 100 art exhibitions, educational programme, seminars, exchange programme etc. His curatorial directions mainly criticize politics, social issues and art eco-system. His artworks explore various media, like painting, drawing, performance, stop-motion animation, photography, video and installation.
Ms. Clara Cheung
Graduated at Rhodes College (TN, USA) with double majors in Fine Art and Computer Science in 2002, Clara Cheung studied for the Postgraduate Diploma in Education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong afterwards, and received a master degree of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. She has been the head of the visual arts department in a high school from 2003 to 2007, is currently an active member of the non-profit art group, Project226,the founder of C&G Artpartment, and a parttime lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University. She has co-curated many art exhibitions at C&G Artpartment and organizes various art projects for other local organizations or schools. Having had different solo and group exhibitions in Hong Kong and overseas, she explores with different art media in her art-making, and some of her works have been collected by private collectors and art museums.
[CUHK] 2013.03.04
Screening+Sharing
Film: Back on the Street
Date: 2013.03.04 (Wed)
Time: 18:30-19:50
Venue: Sir Run Run Shaw Hall, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Guest: Mr. Wong Siu Pong ( The Film Director)
*Cantonese with Chi & Eng Subtitles, free admission.
Back on the Street
HK / 2010 / 47min / Wong Siu Pong
◎2011 Chinese Documentary Festival
◎2012 Art De vivre College Student Film Festival
◎2012 4th Breaking Arts Festival
“Rhythm Attack” is a street dance group formed 10 years ago. They are powerful dancers and outspoken critics of businessmen, the entertainment industry and even fellow dancers. Neither do they care about praise nor disdain. They just chill and try to make a killing, B-boy style.
[HKUST] 2013.02.28
Screening+Sharing
Film: Connected : An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology
Date: 2013.02.28 (Thu)
Time: 18:00-20:00
Venue: Tsang Shiu Tim Art Hall, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Guest: Ms. Silver CHAN (Clinical Psychologist) & Ms. Mabel WAN (Clinical Psychologist)
*English with Chinese subtitles, free admission.
About the guest speaker
Silver Chan
Miss Silver Chan, Student Counselor from Counseling & Development Team of SAO, HKUST. She is also a Registered Clinical Psychologist. As a Counselor, her mission is to support, coach and nurture students at HKUST to enrich their university life in a few key life aspects, including intellectual, emotion and social development.
Mabel Wan
Miss Mabel Wan, Student Counselor from Student Affairs Office, HKUST, was trained as clinical psychologist. Before joining HKUST, she worked in community services settings and provided counseling services to people with problem gambling, family problems and addictive behaviors.
Connected : An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology
USA / 2011 / 82min / Tiffany SHLAIN
◎2011 Best Documentary, Maui Film Festival Audience Award
With wonderful heart and an impressive sense of scale, Connected explores the visible and invisible connections linking major issues of our time – the environment, consumption, population growth, technology, human rights, the global economy – while searching for her place in the world during a transformative time in her life. With humor, curiosity and irony, the SHLAIN family life merges with philosophy to create both a personal portrait and a proposal for ways we can move forward as a civilization. The film proposes that after centuries of declaring independence, it may be time for us to declare our interdependence instead.
[HKU]2013.02.21
Screening+Sharing
Film: Beijing Besieged by Waste
Date: 2013.02.21 (Thu)
Time: 18:00-20:00
Venue: CYP-P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building, Main Campus, The University of Hong Kong
Guest: Ms. Leila Chan (‘Waste Food’Author, Independent Reporter Concerning Socially Sustainable Development)
*Mandarin with Chi and Eng Subtitles, free admission.
Beijing Besieged by Waste
China / 2010 / 83min / WANG Jiu-liang
While China’s rise, and its immense challenges, commands world attention, less light has been shed upon the colossal problem of waste generated by a burgeoning population, expanding industry, and rapacious urban growth. Photographer Wang Jiuliang turns his lens upon the grim spectacle of garbage, excrement, refuse, and wreckage heaped upon the landscape that surrounds China’s mega-metropolis, Beijing. Eking out a hazardous living within are the scavengers, mostly rural migrants, who struggle to maintain familial and cultural structures amid the bleakest of occupations. Wang shows the desecration of once-vital farmlands and rivers in the shadow of China’s gleaming cities and planes and super-trains; the unholy cycle of construction’s consumption and waste, and poignant images of the daily lives of scavengers who toil at their own peril.
[CUHK] 2013.02.18
Screening+Sharing
Film: Metal and Melancholy
Date: 2013.02.18 (Mon)
Time: 18:30-20:30
Venue: Sir Run Run Shaw Hall, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Guest: Ms. Lam Pik Kwan (Clinical Psychologist)
*Spanish with Chi & Eng Subtitles, free admission.
Metal and Melancholy
Netherlands / 1993 / 80min / Heddy HONIGMANN
◎2007 Hot Docs International Documentary Festival
◎1995 Mayor’s Prize, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
◎1994 Grand Prix, Cinéma du Réel
You live in Lima, a Latin-American metropolis with 7 million inhabitants, in Peru, where in the nineteen eighties and nineties the economic situation has grown increasingly hopeless. You still manage to have a job, with the salary of which you can pay for gas and electricity, but not the rent; or you have even lost your job. The only thing that hasn’t been stolen is your old car that you bought when you could still afford it. So, for a dollar you buy a sign saying “taxi”, stick it on your windscreen, and throw yourself into the Lima traffic. The competition is murderous, but the earnings, however small, are still quite worthwhile in a country where the members of the middle-classes – teachers, army officers, doctors, civil servants – earn salaries of a few hundred dollars a month. As a taxi-driving economist explains in the film: in Peru there is hardly any middles-class left. This film takes the viewer on a taxi-trip through Lima. The portraits of the drivers grow into a panorama of human fighting spirit, the many ingenious ways of survival we humans employ, of passion, pain, hope, and zest for life.
[The Good Lab] 2013.02.16
Screening
Film: Card Boom + Taxi – A Moving Life with Chinese
Date: 2013.02.16 (Sat)
Time: 19:30
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
*Free admission.
Card Boom
Taiwan / 2007 / 25min / LIN Hung-Chieh
Mandarin with Chinese Subtitles
★CNEX Production
★2008 The 1st New Asia Film Festival (Vancouver)
The film traces the consumption experiences of two extreme individuals, and takes the audience on a tour to explore the credit card phenomena in Taiwan: ZHENG San-he, the first Taiwanese “card slave” to successfully apply for bankruptcy. Not realizing what he had gotten into at first, ZHENG was startled to find himself owing millions of Taiwan Dollars (TWD). Pressure from banks and threats from asset management companies forced ZHENG into the vicious circle of sustaining one card with another; YANG Hui-ru, the first Taiwanese “card legend”who made a killing from a loophole in the credit card point program. YANG, with help from relatives and friends, took advantage of the loophole and accumulated huge amount of points through pooling together airline and consumer goods purchases. She then sold the points through online auctions. She earned over one million TWD before her card was canceled by the bank. Speaking from her own experiences, YANG Hui-ru advised card slaves to face reality: “Cut up the cards as soon as possible. The interest rate is too heavy. And don’t you think of paying back debt with more cards. It will only make yourself fall even deeper”.
Taxi – A Moving Life with Chinese
China / 2007 / 32min / ZHU Jie
Mandarin & Cantonese with Chi Subtitles
★CNEX Production
★2008The 1st New Asia Film Festival (Vancouver)
★2009 The 16th CUAES
“To learn about a city, you learn about its taxi drivers first.” This is a very common but quite representative vocation. They come to contact with the largest number of people and are most familiar with urban life. This film describes money and life in the eyes of taxi drivers in five representative metropolises in the Greater China Region—Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taibei and Singapore, and in two characteristic small and medium-sized cities—Chengdu and Dieling. Located in different parts in and outside of China, these cities represent different cultural traditions of China, and become a microcosm of the Chinese city. How people live in these places, what do they think of their lives and money in particular? We find a very interesting contrast among the different cities. Through similarity and discrepancy, we outline Chinese people’s views on money and life in 2007.
[HKU] 2013.02.07
Screening+Sharing
Film: The Flaw
Date: 2013.02.07 (Thu)
Time: 18:00-20:00
Venue: CYP-P3, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building, Main Campus, The University of Hong Kong
Guest: Dr. Eddy Lee (Popular Science Author & Freelance Writer, Advisory Committee Member of Hong Kong Science Museum, Chairman of Hong Kong Science Fiction Club)
*English with Chinese subtitles, free admission.
The Flaw
UK / 2011 / 78min / David SINGTON
◎2011 Sundance Film Festival
Made by international award-winning documentary maker David Sington, THE FLAW tells the story of the credit bubble that caused the financial crash. Through interviews with some of the world’s leading economists, including housing expert Robert Shiller, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, and economic historian Louis Hyman, as well as Wall Street insiders and victims of the crash including Ed Andrews – a former economics correspondent for The New York Times who found himself facing foreclosure – and Andrew Luan, once a bond trader at Deutsche Bank now running his own Wall Street tour guide business, the film presents an original and compelling account of the toxic combination of forces that nearly destroyed the world economy.
The film shows how excessive income inequality in society leads to economic instability. At a time when economic theory and public policy is being re-examined this film reminds us that without addressing the root causes of the crisis the system may collapse again and next time it may not be possible for governments to rescue it.
[The Good Lab] 2013.02.05
Screening+Sharing
Film: A Clear Sky
Date: 2013.02.05 (Tue)
Time: 19:30-21:15
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest: Dr. William Yu (Founder & CEO of World Green Organisation)
*Mandarin with Chi & Eng subtitles, free admission.
A Clear Sky
China / 2012 / 72min / HARHUU
★CNEX Production
In the name of economic advancement, good pastureland will be turned into coalmines. The herdsmen, who rely on herding as their livelihood, must now find a different means of survival within these coalmines. In the highlands of Mongolia, against the harsh snow, the Gerituan family still tend to their camels, birth the calves, feed the livestock, and now, overcome the challenges presented by new coalmines. Each summer, the Gerituan family sells most of their livestock and makes that year’s earnings. After forking over his land for the coalmines, brother Bao-ying moves to the city with his horse and earns a living as a tour guide. He’s even considering investing in real estate. The annual Prairie Festival is about to start and the older brother enters into a horse race. Bao-ying and friends will entertain the crowd with horsemanship.
About the guest speaker
Dr. William Yu is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of World Green Organisation (WGO). Dr. Yu is an energy economist and climate professional by training and completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom as well as earned an Executive MBA degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in the United States. Additionally, Dr. Yu has gained valuable regional management experience by working at US multinationals. He has lectured EMBA at the City University and Chinese University of Hong Kong and has refereed climate and renewable energy articles for several energy journals. Dr. Yu is currently the Adjunct Professor of the City University of Hong Kong.
Currently, Dr. Yu sits on the Energy Advisory Committee and sub-committee of the Environmental Campaign Committee under the Environmental Bureau. Dr. Yu is a member of the expert panel on Industry Standards and Research under The Hong Kong Green Building Council. He belongs to the stakeholder advisory panel at the World Resources Institute on the GHG Protocol as well as several key business corporations. Dr. Yu sits on the Project Management Committee to oversee the Carbon Smart Program in collaboration with four key Chambers of Commerce. He was a co-host for an environmental program on numerous TV and Radio Channels. Dr. Yu was also a member of the support group for the Climate Project under the Council for Sustainable Development and the Waste Recovery Projects Vetting Sub-committee under the Environment and Conservation Fund.
Dr. William Yu is the former Head of the Climate Programme at WWF-Hong Kong and responsible for leading both public and business engagement programmes on climate change.
He directed policy advocacy strategies and researches on environmental and poverty issues and social innovation.
Dr. Yu writes articles for multiple newspapers on the low carbon economy, low carbon city and energy poverty.
[HKUST]站 2013.01.28
Screening+Sharing
Film: PAGE ONE: Inside The New York Times
Date: 2013.01.28 (Mon)
Time: 18:00-20:00
Venue: Tsang Shiu Tim Art Hall, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Guest: Ms. Nina Chang (Producer, RTHK Eng TV) & Ms. Serenade Woo (Deputy News Director, 101arts.net)
* English with Chinese subtitles, free admission.
PAGE ONE: Inside The New York Times
USA / 2010 / 88min / Andrew ROSSI
◎2011 San Francisco International Film Festival
Through the years, the fly-on-the-wall documentary has taken us on the presidential campaign trail, into the foxholes of war and behind the curtain with performers. In the spirit of that tradition, Page One goes inside the newsroom at The New York Times during one of the most tumultuous eras for journalism since the printing press was invented to reveal a disarmingly candid portrait of the paper of record.
About the guest Nina Chang
Nina Chang is an experienced TV Journalist who has been in media industry for 18 years. The media outlets she worked for were RTHK English TV, BBC famous News magazine programme Panorama, ONTV and TVB News, etc. Currently, she is working for RTHK English TV News magazine “The Pulse”, producing topical news documentaries and topics regarding human rights such as Gay rights in Hong Kong.
[CUHK] 2013.01.23
Screening+Sharing
Film: Men of the City
Date: 2013.01.23 (Wed)
Time: 18:30-20:30
Venue: Sir Run Run Shaw Hall, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Guest: Mr. Edmond Lee ( Director Global Equity Flow Societe Generale, Co-founder of HKCSS-Elderly Care Fund)
*English with Chinese subtitles, free admission.
Men of the City
UK / 2009 / 58min / Marc ISAACS
★BBC Special recommendation
A Bangladeshi man dashes through the streets burdened by the cross-shaped advertising signboard he is carrying on his back; a trader loses his family as a result of his addiction to the financial markets; a chain smoking insurance man tries desperately to escape the city’s daily grind; an aggressive metals trader lives for killing animals at the weekend; a street sweeper on a spiritual quest seeks a life in the wilderness. Marc ISAACS’s latest feature length film shot during the current financial crisis explores the human cost of life in the dog eat dog world of London’s Square Mile.
About the guest speaker
Director Global Equity Flow Societe Generale, Co-founder of HKCSS-Elderly Care Fund.
[The Good Lab] 2013.01.22
Screening+Sharing
Film: Unfinished Spaces
Date: 2013.01.22 (Tue)
Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 5500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest: Ms. Ada Wong & Gumgum
*English & partial Spanish with Simplified Chinese & partial English Subtitles, free admission.
Unfinished Spaces
USA / 2011 / 86min / Alysa Nahmias, Benjamin Murray
In 1961, three young, visionary architects were commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to create Cuba’s National Art Schools on the grounds of a former golf course in Havana, Cuba. Construction of their radical designs began immediately and the school’s first classes soon followed. Dancers, musicians and artists from all over the country reveled in the beauty of the schools, but as the dream of the Revolution quickly became a reality, construction was abruptly halted and the architects and their designs were deemed irrelevant in the prevailing political climate. Forty years later the schools are in use, but remain unfinished and decaying.
About the guest speaker
Ada Wong has led a cross-disciplinary career. She is a solicitor, elected politician, educator, innovator, cultural advocate, columnist and radio host (current affairs program). In 1998, she founded the Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture (HKICC) to promote education, youth empowerment, the development of sustainable cultural pluralism and a creative civil society. Among other projects, HKICC has founded Hong Kong’s only “art high school”, the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity. HKICC launched Make A Difference (MaD), a platform to groom the next generation of creative leaders and innovative changemakers in Asia. Ada’s latest social venture is The Good Lab, an inspiring co-working space and a collaborative community for social innovation.
Gumgum is a cross-disciplinary cultural activist who has been working in social movements, politics, media and art management. Working as a radio host for RTHK as well as one of the hosts at The Good Lab, she has taught Gender Studies in the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is acquiring her PhD on Community and Coloniality in the University of Hong Kong. While serving as the Chairperson of HER Fund and the East Asian Women’s Forum Hong Kong Preparatory Committee, Gumgum has also been advocating local concern and development for years.
[The Good Lab] 2013.01.18
Screening+Sharing
Film: PAGE ONE: Inside The New York Times
Date: 2013.01.18 (Fri)
Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 5500 Tung Chau Street, West Kowloon
Guest: Mr. Quinton Chan
* English with Chinese subtitles, free admission.
PAGE ONE: Inside The New York Times
USA / 2010 / 88min / Andrew ROSSI
◎2011 San Francisco International Film Festival
Through the years, the fly-on-the-wall documentary has taken us on the presidential campaign trail, into the foxholes of war and behind the curtain with performers. In the spirit of that tradition, Page One goes inside the newsroom at The New York Times during one of the most tumultuous eras for journalism since the printing press was invented to reveal a disarmingly candid portrait of the paper of record.
About the guest speaker
Mr. Quinton Chan, a seasoned media professional and currently Vice-President, Public Affairs of Weber Shandwick (Hong Kong). Quinton had been a journalist for nearly two decades and was the News Editor of the South China Morning Post. He is also the winner of various journalism awards, including the Local Journalist Award from the Society of Publishers in Asia and Chinese University Journalism Award. Quinton also teaches journalism part-time at Shue Yan University and is a council member of the Hong Kong Press Council.
[IVE Morison Hill ]站 (internal event) 2012.11.30
Screening
Film: Men of the City
Date: 2012.11.30（Fri）
Time: 18:00-20:30
Venue: Jockey Club Lecture Theater, 1/F, New Annex, IVE (Morrison Hill), 6 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai, HK
* Internal Screening
Men of the City
UK / 2009 / 58min / Marc ISAACS
★BBC Special Recommendation
A Bangladeshi man dashes through the streets burdened by the cross-shaped advertising signboard he is carrying on his back; a trader loses his family as a result of his addiction to the financial markets; a chain smoking insurance man tries desperately to escape the city’s daily grind; an aggressive metals trader lives for killing animals at the weekend; a street sweeper on a spiritual quest seeks a life in the wilderness. Marc ISAACS’s latest feature length film shot during the current financial crisis explores the human cost of life in the dog eat dog world of London’s Square Mile.
[The Good Lab] 2012.11.29
Screening+Sharing
Film: Dialogue between Blue & Green
Date: 2012.11.29 (Thu)
Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: Mini Theatre, The Good Lab, L1, The Sparkle, 500 Tung Chau Street, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon
Guest: Mr. Vincent Wong（Board Director of “The Good Lab”, Former Director of Strategic Planning of HKCBC）
* Free admission.
Dialogue between Blue & Green
Taiwan / 2012 / 75 min / FU Yue
★CNEX Production
Taiwan’s democracy is the envy of Chinese people all over the world, but when this two-party system—“blue” and “green”—get at each other’s throats, it seems to cast a dark cloud over this beacon of advancing democratization. How does the young generation feel about the political environment they’ve inherited? We gathered a group of young people from across the blue and green spectrum, a year and a half before Taiwan’s presidential election, to participate in a political dialogue.
About the guest speaker
Vincent Wong has been trained to think creatively and critically ever since he was young. He started out at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, and eventually joined the HKSAR Government. As Administrative Officer, he worked on town planning and welfare, and had a deep understanding on contending interests and reconciliation. In 2000, he left the government and got an MBA and an LL.B. from the Cambridge University and University of London respectively. Vincent was also the Director of Strategic Planning of Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company, and hosts the daily talkshow “On a Clear Day”. His book Macrocreativity was awarded “Hong Kong Good Book” in 2005. His new book “The Transformation of Hong Kong” was launched in May 2012. He is also the board director of the social enterprise “The Good Lab”, an incubator for young social entrepreneurs.
[HKBU] 2012.11.22
Screening+Sharing
Film: The Love of Money: Back from The Brink
Date: 2012.11.22(Thu)
Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: WLB205, Hong Kong Baptist University
Guest:
Dr Fung Kwok-kin（Dept. of Social Work, HKBU）
Mrs Mak Yau Mei Siu（HK Catholic Commission for Labour Affairs）
*Free Admission
The Love of Money: Back From the Brink
UK / 2009 / 60min / Paul MITCHELL
★BBC Special Recommendation
In the month that followed the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, the world stared into the abyss of total financial collapse. The BBC’s definitive series on the crash tell the extraordinary story of how politicians reacted, and asks what has been learnt from the entire calamity. Could it happen again With unrivalled contributions from the key decision makers including US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Gordon Brown and five other finance ministers, the programme pieces together the details of an extraordinary moment in history, when the world faced its greatest financial crisis.
[CityU] 2012.11.20
Screening+Sharing
Film: Mothers
Date: 2012.11.20(Tue)
Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: LT11 – John Chan Lecture Theatre, Floor 4, Academic 1, City University of Hong Kong
Guest:
Mr. CHAN Wai To（Social & Human Sciences, CityU）
Mr. WONG Kit Yip（Cross Border Children Concern）
*Free Admission
Mothers
China / 2012 / 70min / XU Hui-jing
★CNEX Production
Zhang Qing-mei is a birth control chief in a small village. When she’s off work, she also serves as a psychic in the Sanguan Temple that worships the “Goddess of Child-giving.” This year, the supervising township office commands that sterilization cases be doubled to 14, although not as many villagers want it at all. Some desperate officers are determined to send the reluctant ones to operation rooms. Rong-rong, the elementary school teacher becomes a main target.
[HKBU] 2012.11.14
Screening+Sharing
Film: Beijing Besieged by Waste
Date: 2012.11.14(Wed)
Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: WLB205, Hong Kong Baptist University
Guest:
Mr SHIU Ka-chun（Dept. of Social Work, HKBU）
Mr CHAN Kai Ming（Ever Green Association）
*Free Admission
Beijing Besieged by Waste
China / 2010 / 83min / WANG Jiu-liang
While China’s rise, and its immense challenges, commands world attention, less light has been shed upon the colossal problem of waste generated by a burgeoning population, expanding industry, and rapacious urban growth. Photographer Wang Jiuliang turns his lens upon the grim spectacle of garbage, excrement, refuse, and wreckage heaped upon the landscape that surrounds China’s mega-metropolis, Beijing. Eking out a hazardous living within are the scavengers, mostly rural migrants, who struggle to maintain familial and cultural structures amid the bleakest of occupations. Wang shows the desecration of once-vital farmlands and rivers in the shadow of China’s gleaming cities and planes and super-trains; the unholy cycle of construction’s consumption and waste, and poignant images of the daily lives of scavengers who toil at their own peril.
[CityU] 2012.11.12
Screening+Forum
Film: China Gate
Date: 2012.11.12(Mon)
Time: 19:30-21:45
Venue: LT9 – SAE Magnetics Lecture Theatre, City University of Hong Kong
Forum Guest:
Dr. LEUNG Yan Wing（Hong Kong Institute of Education）
Mr. WANG Yang（Director）
Ms. LAM Man Wah（Alliance for Children Development Rights）
Ms. MA Lok Ching（Scholarism）
*Free Admission
China Gate
China / 2011 / 72min / WANG Yang
★CNEX Production
◎2011 International Leipzig Festival For Documentary and Animated Film
◎2012 8th ZagrebDox festival INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
◎2012 4th DMZ Docs – Korean International Documentary Festival, International Competition
◎2012 South Taiwan Film Association South Award—Chinese Films Competition
◎2012 Chinese Documentary Festival
China Gate tells the story of young Chinese fight to change their fate through studying. Right before dawn, students in Huining have already started their self-studying session; hard working youngsters have filled up the space of school ground. This is one of the most poverty-stricken counties in Western China; here people’s only hope is in education, as the way to change their social status. Therefore all their effort point towards the College Entrance Examination, the process is like going through a gate, those who pass can study at urban universities, and have the chance to build a better life. During the same winter season in Beijing, a graduate student faces a big decision. Should he keep trying to survive in the big city or get back to his countryside home? The exhausted faces at the Beijing underground seem to be revealing the truth about their distance in between. The student comes to see the flag ceremony at Tiananmen Square, where the pulsing symbol of the nation lies. However it is not giving any answer to his anxiety. Shanghai’s nightfall sparkles with its prosperity, but one graduate from Shanghai music conservatory tells her struggle of finding a place in society. The memories of handwork from early age and the high hope of parents seem like yesterday, the home video footage of her sitting in front of the piano at young age looked like a bittersweet joke. Jumping back to the present, in a playful early learning institute, it seems more like confusion appearing on these children’s face. Is this a new educational method that gives the answer to the high hopes of parents?
[PolyU] 2012.11.10
Opening Ceremony+Screening+Forum
Date: 2012.11.10 (Sat)
Venue: Y303, Lee Shau Kee Building, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University（change from Y301 to Y303）
Event: CNEX Documentary Screening Tour Opening Ceremony
Time: 14:00-14:30
Guest:
Dr. CHUNG Kim-wah（Centre for Social Policy Studies, PolyU）
Prof. Chiu Wai-sang（Dept. of Social Work, HKBU）
Ms. Ada LI（CNEX Foundation Limited）
Mr. LEE Tai-shing（CSSA-Alliance）
Film: The Flaw
Time: 14:30-17:00
Forum Guest:
Dr. CHEUNG Chiu Hung（Dept. of Applied Social Sciences, PolyU）
Dr. HUI Po Keung（Dept. of Cultural Studies, LingnanU）
*Free Admission
The Flaw
UK / 2011 / 78min / David SINGTON
◎2011 Sundance Film Festival
Today, a question haunts America: what exactly caused the world’s greatest economy to crash and burn? And why is it so slow to recover? In The Flaw Sundance award-winning documentary filmmaker David SINGTON sets out to find the answer.
[MaD@Kowloon CIty Book Fair 2012] 2012.11.04
Screening
Film: Dialogue between Blue & Green
Date: 2012.11.04 (Sun)
Time: 16:30-18:00
Venue: Multipurpose Room, G/F, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, 135 Junction Road, Kowloon (Lok Fu MTR Station Exit B)
* Free admission.
Dialogue between Blue & Green
Taiwan / 2012 / 75 min / FU Yue
★CNEX Production
★HK Premiere
Taiwan’s democracy is the envy of Chinese people all over the world, but when this two-party system—“blue” and “green”—get at each other’s throats, it seems to cast a dark cloud over this beacon of advancing democratization. How does the young generation feel about the political environment they’ve inherited? We gathered a group of young people from across the blue and green spectrum, a year and a half before Taiwan’s presidential election, to participate in a political dialogue.
