The Autonomous Era

The Autonomous Era

2015 · 26 min · ★ 7.0 · Drama

In the spirit of autonomy, how can the voice of common people be heard and who gets to decide? Lok and his like-minded friends actively participated in the 2010 anti-rail movement through an online radio platform. Passionate about social causes, they eventually parted ways due to ideological differences on spreading their ideas and uniting the public. Fast forward to four years later, a more composed and experienced Lok remained as an organiser of various social movements, notably the Umbrella Movement. Bumping into a past comrade who is now a mere passerby, Lok reminisced about their shared pasts and less-than-amicable split. The cerebral short is also a moving coming-of-age story of Lok, now with evolved ideas, new identity and well-rounded perspectives.

Directed by Iu Chung Hong · Written by Iu Chung Hong

Your Rating

Cast

More from Iu Chung HongSee all →

The Umbrella

The Umbrella · 2018

It was raining non-stop when Hong Kong was rocked by the tumultuous events of October 2014 (the "umbrella movement"). In a fixed sequence shot, the film captured students meeting each other in the hall, in the rooms, discussing, arguing about or remaining indifferent to the event, while it continued to rain outside.

Travelling on the Night Tube, Thinking About Iced Lemon Tea, Less Sugar

Travelling on the Night Tube, Thinking About Iced Lemon Tea, Less Sugar · 2025

Travelling on the Night Tube, Thinking About Iced Lemon Tea, Less Sugar

On a quiet London night, a boy and girl from Hong Kong meet by chance and travel together on the Night Tube, searching for iced lemon tea, less sugar.

You And Me

You And Me · 2013

What could possibly turn a shy, quiet nerd into a voyeur? A long, lazy summer coupled with endless boredom? Sometimes through his binoculars and other times loitering on campus, a secondary student seeks to get an early taste of what university life has in store for him, dropping in on lectures, stalking the object of his gaze and lurking within her personal spaces. Feeding on a voyeuristic and borderline intrusive look into the lives of others, the voyeur remains at distance an idle walker and casual observer of a time and place charged with passion of a political (and sexual) nature, until his path crosses with hers and the two finally converge…

Afterwards,

Afterwards, · 2025

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.

White White

White White · 2024

After a year in London, Jiu’s girlfriend vanishes, leaving a seaside recording, a plant named “White White”, and an empty room.

THAT SPRING, IN THE SKY OF H-VILLE, THERE WAS ____

THAT SPRING, IN THE SKY OF H-VILLE, THERE WAS ____ · 2022

THAT SPRING, IN THE SKY OF H-VILLE, THERE WAS ____

That spring, there was _____ in the sky of H-ville. What is _____? No one can tell. The sudden “unknown” caused absurd and strange phenomena. The real nightmare was not the natural disaster, but the man-made one. The regime used this to implement the “state of exception”. The system continued to operate. How much human value would be left? As Giorgio Agamben stated at the beginning of the pandemic, “The epidemic has caused to appear with clarity that the state of exception, to which governments have habituated us for some time, has truly become the normal condition.”

After the Riots, Before the Liberation

After the Riots, Before the Liberation · 2020

After the Riots, Before the Liberation

MovieDocumentary

2019 in Hong Kong, protests become our daily life. The stuffs in the streets after each protest are changing our urban landscape, and they become the view of our everyday life. Graffitis on walls, unscrewed railings, bricks, respirators, safety goggles. Everything records what has happened in the city and witnesses our beliefs. I walked through the streets with my camera after protests. Mr. LIU Yi Chang let the objects tell the story in his nouveau roman short story, Riot, in 1968. Likewise, I let the objects play the narrators and tell us about the protests. Moreover, there are conversations and dialectic between different narrators…

A Riot That Didn't Happen

A Riot That Didn't Happen · 2025

A Riot That Didn't Happen

After the anti-immigration riots occurred in the UK in early August 2024, far-right called to attack 100 places, such as immigration centres, across the country on 7th Aug. The leftist urged to stand up against racism to show solidarity with communities. I joined one of the counter-protests. I jot down what I saw with my camera and reflected from the perspective of a former activist.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter