Like an abortion, for the very first time (2018)

We Have Boots

The Umbrella Movement of 2014, also known as the Occupy Movement, paved the way for Hong Kong’s current upheavals, but unfolded in significantly different ways. This creative documentary focuses on the intellectual, political, and discursive underpinnings of the social and political actions of 2014, before fast-forwarding to 2019. A range of thoughtful and engaged intellectuals, students, scholars, activists, and artists including Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man, Ray Wong, and Agnes Chow (many of whom are facing imprisonment for their democratic activism) articulate a range of philosophies, viewpoints and emotions, set against Hong Kong’s spectacular urban background of skyscrapers, night lights, and street-occupying mass movements.

Revolution of Our Times

Throughout Hong Kong’s history, Hongkongers have fought for freedom and democracy but have yet to succeed. In 2019, a controversial extradition bill was introduced that would allow Hongkongers to be tried in mainland China. This decision spurred massive protests, riots, and resistance against heavy-handed Chinese rule over the City-State. Award-winning director Kiwi Chow documents the events to tell the story of the movement, with both a macro view of its historical context and footage and interviews from protestors on the front lines.

Raise The Umbrellas

Four years later, Hong Kong’s 2014 democratic Umbrella Movement has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, yet political backlash against protesters has intensified. Repeatedly the target of censorship*, Raise the Umbrellas traces the lineage of the massive Hong Kong protest to the global Occupy movement, 1989 Tiananmen, and its democratic struggles since British colonial days. Highlights range from the Umbrella Movement’s eco-awareness and its burgeoning aspiration for independence, to its empowerment of women -- “umbrella mothers” -- and the rainbow-bridging activism of LGBTQ iconic artists. Incisive and intimate, driven by stirring on-site footage in a major Asian metropolis riven by protest, Umbrellas includes anti-Occupy views that lay bare the sheer political risk for post-colonial Hong Kong’s universal-suffragist striving to define its autonomy within China.

Another Home

Cheung Chau, once a fishing village in Hong Kong, has transformed into a tourist spot. Ri-Tai, a food stall run by A-Cheung, reflects local life, absurdities, and societal realities. A-Cheung spends his days playing games with customers like Plumpy, forming bonds that transcend generations. However, the onset of COVID-19 disrupts this sense of community, leaving the island deserted and questioning whether Ri-Tai's simple way of life will vanish.

Rather Be Ashes Than Dust

Memories of his four-year journey focused on the Hong Kong protests. Narrated in the first person, is rich with reflections and contemplations, most intertwined with feelings of guilt.

Pseudo Secular

They are frozen in place, stagnating without any direction. Around them, things change rapidly.

Anti-XRL Campaign - Media Perspective

In late 2009, over twenty Hong Kong civic groups united as the "Anti-High-Speed Rail, Stop Funding" coalition, aiming to halt Legislative Council approval of the HKD 66.9 billion Express Rail Link amid deep social rifts. The "Post-80s Anti-High-Speed Rail Youth" group drew thousands of young people with their slogan “Defend Our Homeland, Protest with Joy,” leading to three funding suspensions that surprised the public. Media coverage was intense and innovative, featuring rare camera angles and lively online debate among journalists. This documentary explores how reporters shaped the movement, their emotional involvement, and the dynamic relationship between the media and activists during Hong Kong’s pivotal 2009–10 protests.

Raging Land 3: Three Valleys

After the anti-express rail protests, Choi Yuen Village’s struggle did not end with the railway project approval. Villagers shifted from fighting demolition to painstakingly relocating and rebuilding their community. In 2011, they planned the new village together—including house design, sewage, and land use—while facing government pressure to move out by November. Road access issues caused additional worries. As demolition began, villagers stood together to protect their homes and demanded time to build before moving. By May 2011, villagers left their longtime homes for makeshift housing on newly bought farmland, continuing their collective effort. Their unity in overcoming countless challenges set an example for other rural communities and shows that real resistance is a long journey requiring ongoing attention.

Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower

When the Chinese Communist Party backtracks on its promise of autonomy to Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong decides to save his city. Rallying thousands of kids to skip school and occupy the streets, Joshua becomes an unlikely leader in Hong Kong and one of China’s most notorious dissidents.

The Time of the Individual

Documentary "The Time of the Individual" records records the 7.7 demonstration at Tsim Sha Tsui. To say NO to the Extradition Bill (which is a mechanism for transferring fugitive to Mainland China), Hong Kong protester flooded the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui on July 7 2019. Youngsters use their “own ways” to delivery to mainland travelers the demand of democracy. This shows another peaceful side of the protest as not shown on traditional medias.

Franco Mella

Franco Mella is a devoted figure whose life bridges Catholicism and Communism. He has journeyed through Asia, lived simply, and fought for social justice, notably within Hong Kong's protest history as depicted in "Ordinary Heroes" (1999). Mella's path weaves through religious and revolutionary movements, from church beginnings to Communist activism and the Handover, always driven by his missionary spirit and communist ideals. For four decades, he has steadfastly championed the oppressed, undeterred by shifting politics, expressing solidarity through music and protest, and remaining a symbol of wisdom and resilience for the people of Hong Kong.

Her Anti-WTO

The 2005 World Trade Conference in Hong Kong was the starting point of the "direct action" that emerged from the Hong Kong protest movement. It was also the first time the Hong Kong police used a large number of tear-gas and beanbag rounds on the street after the 1967 riots. Outside the conference, there were many Hong Kong protestors. Why and how did they get involved in this movement centered on Korean farmers?

Blue Island

Although the Chinese government promised that Hong Kong would retain separate status until 2047, in recent years the Chinese state has consolidated its power over the metropolis. Large-scale protests by the populace have been brutally suppressed. This mix of documentary, fiction, and visions of the future reveals the current state of desolate depression among the people of Hong Kong. “A desperate attempt to capture the final moments of a sinking island”, as maker Chan Tze-woon himself puts it.

Hong Kong: Retrocession Generation

In 2017, twenty years after the British handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997, young people, more politicized than any previous generation and proud of their land, do not feel Chinese and actively fight against the oligarchs who want to subdue them to China's authoritarian power.

Lessons in Dissent

A vivid portrait of a generation of Hong Kongers committed to creating a new more democratic Hong Kong. Schoolboy Joshua Wong dedicates himself to stopping the introduction of National Education. Whilst former classmate Ma Jai fights against political oppression on the streets and in the courts. Catapulting the viewer on to the streets of Hong Kong and into the heart of the action. The viewer is confronted with Hong Kong's oppressive heat, stifling humidity and air thick with dissent. Filmed over 18 months this is a kaleidoscopic, visceral experience of their epic struggle.

Days After n Coming

Hong Kong's high-speed rail link, the demolition of Choi Yuen Village, the impending budget and the influence of the global Occupy movement are at the centre of independent filmmaker Lo's timely measure of the city's pulse. Ostensibly the third entry in a trilogy that began with 21 years after. (2010) and to be continued (2010), which also captured public reaction to watershed moments in Hong Kong's political life since 2009. The documentary was built upon the material used in its previous installment (to be continued, 46 minutes). It disproves the notion of a passive Hong Kong in a chronicle of a generation poised for massive social change.

Do Not Split

The story of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, told through a series of demonstrations by local protestors that escalate into conflict when highly armed police appear on the scene.

Raging Land 1: A Record of Choi Yuen Village

This is a film about Choi Yuen Village, documenting villagers’ lives in the summer and autumn of 2009. Suddenly, weekly meetings, guided tours, protests, and ambiguous government consultations entered their routines. They had to recount their personal histories and the meaning of life. The common belief that protests were only about money began to loosen. The word "agriculture" reemerged for Hongkongers. The timeline depicted in the film leads up to the peak of the anti-high-speed rail protests around the Legislative Council. In the end, the railway was decided to build. In spring and summer 2010, villagers searched for land and negotiated with the government to rebuild their homes and lifestyle, valuing community, and coexistence with nature. What sustains their deep connection to land and life?

Age of Valiant

At the forefront of most of Hong Kong's demonstrations, 'frontliners' (aka 'the valiant', yung mo in Cantonese) are the black-clad, masked, often armed youth willing to use violence against the HK government and its heavily-armed police force. Willis Ho's remarkably revealing doc approaches from the inside, giving them voices and offering understanding, not judgment.

Hong Kong Moments

As pro-democracy activists and armed police battle in the streets of Hong Kong, ordinary citizens are choosing sides. Historically an outlier of both western and Chinese power, Hong Kong wields its own economic force, affording the city and its people a spirit of independence that has now erupted into clouds of tear gas. Filmmaker Bing Zhou uses a nimble camera to follow a group of protagonists—two opposing political candidates, a tea shop owner, a cab driver, a police officer, a paramedic—on two separate days of conflict. On September 21, 2019, protestors from three districts join forces, resulting in unprecedented violence. Just 10 days later on October 1, the National Day of the People’s Republic of China, previously undecided onlookers show their stripes. Thoughts transform into action in this demonstration of how mercurial and personal Hong Kong’s politics have become.

Because I Choose Freedom

Matthew Leung Ming-hong had been working as a breaking-news reporter for six years in Hong Kong but recently emigrated to the United Kingdom because of concerns about growing restrictions on journalists working in the city. Three Hong Kong media outlets popular with the opposition have folded in just six months, following the introduction of a controversial national security law in Hong Kong on June 30, 2020, raising fears about the future of press freedom in the city. The 29-year-old is starting a new life in Britain’s northern city of Manchester and plans to eventually resume his journalism career in Europe.

Hong Kong Mixtape

Political engagement spawned the wildest of wonderlands for Hong Kong’s creativity – but as a new law annihilates freedom of expression overnight, underground artists and creatives find themselves targets, and their works disappeared. Together we race to preserve the creative uprising amid China’s crackdown.

Fear(less) and Dear

Hongkongers have been experiencing extremely difficult times due to the political movement caused by anti-Extradition Bill since the summer of 2019 followed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This film explores Hongkongers’ fear in various dimensions, be it a concept or actual physical experience, personal or political, private or public, or the mixing of these pairs.

YP1967

Everyone has their secrets. Everyone has the past no one’s heard about. But what makes an entire generation sit in stunned silence with unmentionable hesitation to talk about their past? Even the past was 50 years ago. Five decades after the Hong Kong leftist riots, six ex-young prisoners speak out for the first time about their personal and unmentionable experience. Documentary film YP1967 is about their love and hate towards their country, their honour and dishonour as a convicted criminal, their condonation and condemnation of the parties involved, and their truth-seeking and reconciliation with the past.

Not One Less

The documentary “Not One Less” records the clash in Hong Kong Island on 31st August, 2019, and the assembly on Mid-Autumn festival night supporting protestors in custody. The protests initiated by the "Extradition Bill" has continued for more than 100 days. In this period, over 1000 citizens were arrested, a number of people committed suicide, and there are rumors that some protestors are missing. In the clash scene, protestors strive to protect their comrades from being isolated. After the clash, they still care about their comrades in custody. On the mid-autumn festival night, they sang loudly outside the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, to let their comrades know that they were not abandoned.

June

I made June when I didn’t have any inspiration to create a feature film. The documentary is about the rarely known stories in the social movement in June. At first the clips of videos were kept for sorting out my feelings, but after being edited, they were made into a documentary and became a record of history. Six scenes and voices were used to tell what happened during that month.

Mong Kok First Aid

Mong Kok First Aid investigates the experiences and unheard stories of a group of young volunteers who provided First Aid services to wounded participants during Hong Kong’s landmark Umbrella Movement of 2014. Just half a decade later, their first-person narratives reveal an intense feeling of time passing and memories fading, as this documentary seeks to challenge history by intervening to supplement the record. After all, who decides whose story can be a part of history?

Comrades

Young people are protesting on the streets of Hong Kong in order to bring about change. Air soaked with tear gas, the dark uniforms and loud commands of the police officers in the colourful umbrella sea of the protesters. In the midst of the action, the film documents a brand new protest movement.

Tugging Diary

Tugging Diary documents a footbridge over a year between August 2019 to January 2021. Due to social unrest and the uncertainty of various immediate happenings, both the internet and physical spaces act as critical communication platforms of its own during this period. As such, information can be circulated in the community more widely and rapidly outside of the existing mainstream media. As time goes by, these materials are continuously altered, some were renewed, while the others were removed, covered with paint, or overlaid by other information.

Inside the Red Brick Wall

In 2019, Hong Kong was swept by demonstrations against the controversial extradition bill. At the Polytechnic University, a group of students also takes a stand for freedom and democracy. Negotiations with the police are chaotic and aggressive, conducted via megaphones and politically charged music played over loudspeakers. The colorful umbrellas which the young people use to protect themselves against the brutal police actions emphasize the group’s bravado, which borders on recklessness. What begins as an energetic battle against the establishment turns into a lopsided game of cat and mouse when the police decide to surround the building. Within its red brick walls, the university building becomes a prison. Over the nearly two weeks that follow, as fear and exhaustion grow among the hundreds of students, so does the uncertainty. Should they hang on inside, or leave the building to face the armed police?

Be Water

The documentary “Be Water” records the clash in West Kowloon on 20th October, 2019. Police issued objection notice to the march protest organised by Civil Human Rights Front. The march eventually turns into a clash. Protestors flowed like water, disperse and re-assemble while contending the police.

Hong Kong, Ga Yau

When Hong Kong, which has a legal system separate from China, brought the 2019 Extradition Bill, citizens took to the streets. Locals feared that the law, which would extradite Hong Kong criminals to the mainland, will be used to target dissidents & undermine the region's judicial independence. This film documents how the protest turned into a pro-democracy movement whose impact echoed in Beijing.

Taking Back the Legislature

After a night of planning and mourning, a storm is brewing at early hours of 1 July, 2019. In face of the absurdity of the government's indoor flag ceremony, protesters question the usefulness of peaceful protest and hope to storm the Legislative Council Complex as a last-ditch effort to ignite change in the movement. As they confront pro-democracy councillors outside the complex, their pent-up anger and despair explode.

If We Burn

Hundreds of thousands − perhaps even millions − of protestors have taken to the streets of Hong Kong since early June. Sparked initially by the government's plans for a controversial extradition bill, the movement has now transformed into a broader push for greater freedoms and democracy, with anger over police brutality fuelling a cycle of violence. The protests are Hong Kong's biggest challenge to Beijing since its return to China in 1997. If We Burn looks at the movement through the eyes of Hong Kongers whose fates, like their city's future, now hang in the balance.

Raging Land 2 : Breaking new ground through Thorns and Thistles

Choi Yuen Village faced demolition by the express rail project. In 2009, villagers protested and petitioned, sparking the anti-express rail movement. Despite their efforts, the railway plan was approved in early 2010. Forced to choose between leaving or rebuilding, they opted for the government’s land rehabilitation scheme to create a new village together. With volunteers, they searched for land in Pat Heung and fought to prove their status as farmers. Many outsiders misunderstood, believing the villagers received generous compensation and government help. Yet, it was the villagers’ shared determination and love for their land and way of life that carried them through, even as the once-barren longan trees bloomed again in 2010.

Umbrellas Move

“Umbrellas Move” is a long feature documentary capturing scenes from Hong Kong’s city-wide protest, the occupy movement in 2014. This documentary witnessed a critical page of Hong Kong after transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from Britain to China. Around 1200 thousand people have involved in this longest occupation in the history of Hong Kong in 2014. 79 days of occupation, Hong Kong people are fighting for their rights to vote under a fair election in order to be against the political controls from China.

Almost A Revolution

The Occupy Central movement called for civil disobedience in the middle of Hong Kong’s financial district, in pursuit of democratic elections. The movement attracted many sympathetic students and citizens, and became known around the world as the “Umbrella Revolution” in 2014. This film closely follows the action on the ground: debates within the movement, street speeches, the unofficial referendum which was held as part of the campaign, and the student-led protests at the Central Government Office. It examines the tumultuous thoughts and feelings of seven activists who were there at the heart of the struggle.

Migrant Down the Rabbit Hole

The work documented the story of Yuli, a Hong Kong domestic worker from Indonesia. She is a novelist who won a literature award and also a journalist dedicated to writing. Between the social event that happened in June in Hong Kong, her thoughts and caring about the city are far more from what people used to imagine a narrative of a domestic worker. They are not only domestic workers but they also have other social roles, e.g. a citizen who lived in Hong Kong.

Head-to-tail

An overwhelming pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong (also described as the Occupy Movement or the Umbrella Revolution in the region) in 2014 has devastated many families in the city. A veteran journalist father, a policeman son and an activist daughter are living in a torn society of Hong Kong. The trios in the Suen family are caught off-guard by the teasing of Moerae, or the Goddess of Destiny. In philately, "tête-bêche", or head-to-tail in English, is used to referred to a pair of generic stamps which is inverted in relation to one another, either through a printing error or intentionally. The stamps are of special value only when they are unseparated. Metaphorically, "tête-bêche" can precisely reflected the portrayed family's tricky situation, that different role-plays or value judgments can lead to sparkling tension among family members, yet somehow the old saying of "blood is thicker than water" prevails.

21 years after

This is the first referendum held in Hong Kong and probably the last. Some people want to grasp the chance to directly participate in the democratic process. They try in various ways to push for greater democracy in society so that the people can become emancipated.

Afterwards,

Two independent stories - one from 2014 and the other from 2019 - are placed together, allowing us to look back at the Umbrella Movement and the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement, which are considered to be pivotal moments in Hong Kong's pro-democracy activism.

Roll Up Your Sleeves

This variety special aims to educate viewers, raise awareness and dispel concerns surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines, all with the goal of increasing vaccination rates to put an end to the pandemic.

Antarctica: The Frozen Time

The bleakness of Antarctica is a fallacy. The ice continent is full of life and offers a biodiversity of which only about two percent are known. Much of it is under water and could determine the future of human beings. When the northern lights cover the ice landscape in summer, the animals in the Antarctic are in a paradisiacal state. Whales blow their fountains in the sky, penguins fly like small rockets into the water, seals dive for crabs under the glittering ice floes. From the bay of the Ross Sea to the ice shelf, from the huge penguin colonies to steaming volcanoes, a life in rhythm with the ice. But the consequences of climate change are slowly becoming apparent here too. While some species are dying, others are spreading. They could bring new viruses and bacteria with them, and new dangers for humans too. The structure of nature has gotten off course. How many generations will still be able to experience the magic of Antarctica?

Oradour, retour sur un massacre

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Nationtime

A report on the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana, in 1972, a historic event that gathered Black voices from across the political spectrum, among them Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Coretta Scott King, Richard Hatcher, Amiri Baraka, Charles Diggs, and H. Carl McCall.

The Story of Plastic

The Story of Plastic is a seething expose uncovering the ugly truth behind the current global plastic pollution crisis. Striking footage shot over three continents illustrates the ongoing catastrophe: fields full of garbage, veritable mountains of trash; rivers and seas clogged with waste; and skies choked with the poisonous runoff from plastic production and recycling processes with no end in sight. Original animations, interviews with experts and activists, and never-before-filmed scenes reveal the disastrous consequences of the flood of plastic smothering ecosystems and poisoning communities around the world – and the global movement rising up in response.

HAND. LINE. COD.

In the coldest waters surrounding Newfoundland's rugged Fogo Island, "people of the fish"—traditional fishers—catch cod live by hand, one at a time, by hook and line. After a 20-year moratorium on North Atlantic cod, the stocks are returning. These fishers are leading a revolution in sustainability, taking their premium product directly to the commercial market for the first time. Travel with them from the early morning hours, spend time on the ocean, and witness the intricacies of a 500-year-old tradition that's making a comeback.

Once Upon a Time: The Super Heroes

The historical saga of American superheroes. Born in the period between the Great Depression and the World War II to combat the hobgoblins of the modern world, these mutant human beings with superhuman powers colonized the funny papers, radio dramas, television and films, to become a truly national industry in the United States: they gave expression to the fears and obsessions of the twentieth century and bolstered American ideals.

Investigation on The Night That Won't Forget

Erwin Romulo, the late Alexis Tioseco’s best friend, recalls the events after the critic and his girlfriend Nika Bohinc’s untimely death in their home in Quezon City. Diaz makes use of one long take to allow Romulo an uninterrupted narration of the events. The pain of recalling is palpable.

Juanes: Origen

Juanes opens a window to his memory in this visual and musical journey in which he pays tribute to some of the artists and songs that inspired his musical identity.

Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre

Executive produced by NBA superstar and philanthropist Russell Westbrook, and directed by Peabody and Emmy-Award® winning director Stanley Nelson (“Freedom Riders”) and Peabody and duPont-Award winner Marco Williams (“Two Towns of Jasper”), the documentary commemorates the 100th anniversary of the horrific Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history, and calls attention to the previously ignored but necessary repair of a town once devastated.