Ode to Book People(2020)

Be Water(en)

In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland of Hong Kong to complete four iconic films. Charting his struggles between two worlds, this portrait explores questions of identity and representation through the use of rare archival footage, interviews with loved ones and Bruce’s own writings.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down(en)

This documentary / fund raiser film was produced in 1984 by the Hong Kong Salvation Army to raise sponsorship for their educational activities in the infamous Kowloon Walled City. The project was filmed in 16mm film.

Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down(cn)

This anthology film, whose Chinese title begins with a romantic name for human excrement, premiered internationally at Rotterdam and won Best Screenplay from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. A variety of Hong Kong people wrestle with nostalgia when facing an uncertain future. Their stories give way to a documentary featuring a young barista turned political candidate.

Rebellion(en)

As the 'one country two systems' policy in Hong Kong has slowly eroded, resentment among the territory's citizens has steadily grown. What began as a series of spontaneous protests against an extradition law in March 2019 has now escalated in to a full-blown popular uprising that shows no signs of abating. ABC Four Corners reports from the frontline of the action, capturing extraordinary footage of the growing tension and violence.

RÉVEILLON 2024 OU: O Cine-Monstro da Virada(pt)

A group of friends gathers to celebrate the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. Captured through a cellphone camera, the film showcases their various interactions while highlighting the artistic and cultural influences that shape their lives.

Revolution of Our Times(cn)

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.

Trip to Asia: The Quest for Harmony(de)

Journey with the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic and their conductor Sir Simon Rattle on a breakneck concert tour of six metropolises across Asia: Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo. Their artistic triumph onstage belies a dynamic and dramatic life backstage. The orchestra is a closed society that observes its own laws and traditions, and in the words of one of its musicians is, “an island, a democratic microcosm – almost without precedent in the music world - whose social structure and cohesion is not only founded on a common love for music but also informed by competition, compulsion and the pressure to perform to a high pitch of excellence... .” Never before has the Berlin Philharmonic allowed such intimate and exclusive access into its private world.

Bruce Lee: Tracking the Dragon(en)

Bruce Lee expert John Little tracks down the actual locations of some of Bruce Lee's most iconic action scenes. Many of these sites remain largely unchanged nearly half a century later. At monasteries, ice factories, and on urban streets, Little explores the real life settings of Lee's legendary career. This film builds on Little's earlier film, Pursuit of the Dragon, to present a comprehensive view of Lee's work that will change the way you see the films.

Bukit Orang Salah(en)

At various points in its history, tiny St. John's Island was where Singapore's colonial founder Sir Stamford Raffles docked his ship upon arrival, a quarantine centre for immigrants and pilgrims returning from Mecca, a penal colony for political detainees and secret society leaders, and a sleepy holiday resort. Unlike its neighbouring islands, however, St. John's was never fully developed. It occupies an in-between space, the vestiges of its history scattered around the land. Its indeterminacy stands in sharp contrast to Singapore, where land use is meticulously planned to fulfil economic and social functions. In this film, St. John's Island - otherwise known as 'Bukit Orang Salah', a nickname coined by the people who were quarantined there - becomes a site of and for reflection, prompting questions about our history, heritage and identity.

YP1967(cn)

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.

Modern Heroes Modern Slaves(en)

Each day, thousands of people leave countries like the Philippines to seek work abroad. They work as nannies, domestics, clerks and labourers for low wages and with few rights. What little money they earn they send home to their families. This contribution to their country’s economy has prompted the Philippine government to call these contract workers “modern day heroes.” But that’s only half the story.

High Fidelity: The Adventures of the Guarneri String Quartet(en)

Relationships, rehearsals, performances, hobbies, and family life of the members of the Guarneri String Quartet.

If We Burn(cn)

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.

Shirkers(en)

In 1992, teenager Sandi Tan shot Singapore's first indie road movie with her enigmatic American mentor Georges – who then vanished with all the footage. Twenty years later, the 16mm film is recovered, sending Tan, now a novelist in Los Angeles, on a personal odyssey in search of Georges' vanishing footprints.

We Have Boots(cn)

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.

Carlos Sainz: The Operator(es)

Umbrellas Move(cn)

“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.

Exergo(eu)

Departing from peripheral details of some paintings of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, a female narrator unravels several stories related to the economic, social and psychological conditions of past and current artists.

Take Me Home(en)

A group of strangers comes to a monastery in Utah for a month-long stay. The monastery has two guidelines: no people-pleasing and no private thoughts. They find themselves opening up to each other in ways they never could have imagined.

Class Acts(en)

Class Acts is a feature-length documentary tracing the genesis of Singapore's creative scene in the '90s through intimate conversations with its pioneering personalities. These are the stories of individuals who started creating with nothing, who push Singapore’s creative standards even today. The ones who went on to inspire a new generation of musicians, designers, and street artists.