HABITAT

Following her award-winning documentary, One Tree Three Lives, about novelist Hualing Nieh Engle, Hong Kong director Angelina Chan examines the artist Yank Wong Yan-kwai. A complex man who resists easy categorizations, Wong is a painter, art director, set designer, writer, musician, and photographer, an elusive renaissance man of bountiful creativity. More than a portrait of an artist and the creative life, the lm is also a high-octane cat-and-mouse game between lmmaker and subject: one tries to capture, the other evades

A group of documentary filmmakers began to shoot the civil social movement in Hong Kong, which became part of the city's common landscape. Spanning over two years, the filmmakers attempt to reveal the visible and invisible control behind. They trace a mysterious organization which is suspected to secretly control the weather which dampens the mood and suppresses the intention of the public to participate in social movements. On the surface, the question on inclement weather could be answered by climate changes around the world. The underlying sordid discussion, however, is really about intervention, pervasive suppression and control instead of any conspiracy theory.

Ching’s mother asks Ching to take her grandmother in until she is sent to a nursing home and that makes her ponder over her relationship with her mother. Three generations of women, each has their own share of pain.

It's based on an urban myth – drug abuse during pregnancy results in green fetuses. Jade is pregnant. This film follows her one-day psychological journey in experiencing life and death, guilt and forgiveness.

Ching’s parents are retirees ready to leave for Taiwan where a new chapter awaits them. The only thing holding them back is their daughter’s hesitation to join them. Unbeknownst to them, Ching is stuck in an affair with a married man. She is constantly teetering between trust and distrust, clinging on unfulfilled promises instead of letting go. Life has presented a difficult crossroad to her as she weighs between acting for her own good and following what the heart desires.

On this day, an elderly Taiwanese mother and daughter, accompanied by a Burmese volunteer, journey from a rural area to an urban animal crematorium, tenderly carrying the body of their beloved cat, in hopes of ensuring that its final journey is marked by peace and grace.

The title is an allusion to the Chinese gambling game but the story is a treacherous journey with high stakes and a handsome reward. Three friends brave rugged terrain to escape hardship and persecution, surviving on foraged food and their meagre possessions – a pack of ciggies, the Little Red Book of Chairman Mao and three dices – all the while hounded by Red Guards on patrol. Loyalty, friendship and life are bet against a new beginning in the city where the streets are allegedly paved with gold. The odds are against them and the chance of survival is a row of the dice.

Poetry on Film is a moving image commissioning project for young and emerging Hong Kong filmmakers, motivated by the belief that poetry possesses an inherent cinematic quality. Its rhythmic cadence, vivid imagery, and emotional depth offer a rich tapestry for filmmakers to weave their visual narratives. Animator STEP C., narrative filmmaker Chu Hoi Ying, analogue film artist Jolene Mok, and documentarian Lee Wai Shing were asked to choose a contemporary Chinese-language poem written by a local writer, then visualise it using their personal cinematic language. The resulting shorts showcase the diversity of Hong Kong moving image practice, with unique approaches to medium, storytelling, cinematography, and sound.

Chu collaborated with young dancers and choreographers to explore prolific Hong Kong poet Yam Gong’s “Daily Life” (1987), which describes the nightmarish experience of falling seriously ill.