INDIE HK SUMMER, 2013 INDIE HK
SUMMER, SUMMER, 2013 VOL. 001
WHEN STEPHEN SILHA MEETS JAMES BROUGHTON PAST AND PRESENT From Hong Kong Indie Films to World Indie Films
The Magazine of Independent Film
GOLDEN GATE SILVER LIGHT A WOMAN DIRECTOR’S LEGEND
SEVEN DAYS TOGETHER
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EDITORIALBOARD
Editor’s Note SUMMER, 2013 VOL. 001
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Cherry Luo MANAGING EDITOR Lemon Lin ASSOCIATE EDITOR Vivian Xu MARKETING DIRECTOR Vivian Huang ART DIRECTOR Dong Xiaobo PLANNING COORDINATOR Katie Zhang
Asian independent films are being showcased in the ongoing Hong Kong Asian International Film Festival in April, but where is the local indie film scene anyway? INDIE HK is the first English magazine based in Hong Kong for local independent film industry, the artists who committed to explore film as a form of art, and whoever share a sincere interest in the unlimited scope of motion picture. Through carefully selected topics and insightful editorial content, INDIE HK provides you a feast of inspiring point of views in both filmmaking and filmmakers. In Golden Gate Silver Light: A Female Director’s Legend, S. Louisa Wei brought the life journey of Esther Eng, a pioneer Chinese-American female film director, to light, seeking to remind the audiences of Esther Eng’s significance in a male-dominated film industry. Many people have noticed that the reason behind the lack of excellent local indie films in recent years is because there’s not enough new blood coming into this industry. From Louisa Wei’s point of view, the deeper reason actually lies in the high cost of living now in Hong Kong. We also provide you with international indie filmmaker’s story in When Stephen Silha Meets James Broughton. Stephen Silha is an independent filmmaker who enjoys intimate relationships with James Broughton, a pioneering poet and filmmaker in America. This kind of stories will give Hong Kong audience a fresh air, inspire and encourage them to make documentaries on things they truly love. Besides the feature stories, there is a session dedicated to promoting students’ project in progress, since the future of indie film in Hong Kong lies in the youth generation. In Filmmakers’ Corner, Anson Mak, a local film, video and sound artist, will share with you useful
FOR SUBSCRIPTION, GIFT MEMEBERSHIPS, OR CHANGES OF ADDRESS, CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE AT INDIEHK.COM OR CALL 852-45674321. OFFICE: INDIEHK, HALL3, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, HKSAR
THE MAGAZINE OF INDEPENDENT FILM
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FEATURES
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19 WHEN STEPHEN SILHA GOLDEN GATE Meets SILVER LIGHT: 12 A WOMAN DIRECTOR’S JAMES BROUGHTON LEGEND
DEPARTMENTS
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Editor’s Note
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Screenings
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Effie’s Review
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The Youth
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Festivals
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Filmakers’ Corner
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Museum
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Backstage
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Editor’s Choice
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SCREENINGS
Movie Talk I: Ivy Ho Moderator: Law Kar Speaker: Ivy Ho Date: 14.4.2013 (Sun) 4:30pm Venue: Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive Conducted in Cantonese, Admission Free
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SUMMER, 2013 2013 INDIE INDIE HK HK SUMMER,
In this film screening and seminar series organised and hosted by veteran film critic and historian Law Kar, experienced filmmakers are invited to select three films by themselves or their film-making counterparts for screening. A two-hour seminar will be held after the screenings where audience will join host and guest watching clips of the selected films and gain better understanding of the featured guests’ experience and art as they intimately share with the audience the inspiration, motivation and process of their creative work.
Critics’ Choice 2013 Date: Venue:
11.5 - 20.7.2013 Lecture Hall, Hong Kong Science Museum Presented by: Leisure and Cultural Services Department Organised by: Hong Kong Film Critics Society
MAY The Cinematic Matrix of Golden Harvest Time: Date: Venue:
10:00 – 19:00 22.3 – 30.6.2013 50 Lei King Road, Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong Film Archive Presented by: Leisure and Cultural Services Department
JUNE 6
With its gifted power to transcend, art can relate an old tale in a brand new way. We have selected six feature films which serve as the pioneers or stylesetters in the history of cinematographic narration and will approach them with three different topics: Mystery and Truth, Memoirs and Portraits and New Waves: New Ways of Storytelling.
“The Cinematic Matrix of Golden Harvest” is presented in six chapters: “The Legend of the Dragons,” “Action Rejuvenated, “Comedic Schemes,” “Talents Abound”, “International Visions” and “Dare to be Unique.” They include early works directed by Jimmy Wang Yu, Huang Feng, John Woo and Michael Hui, plus cutting edge films made by young visionary filmmakers, including Patrick Tam’s The Sword (1980), Tony Au’s I Am Sorry (1989), Alfred Cheung’s On the Run (1988) and Gordon Chan’s The Final Option (1994).
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SCREENINGS
REGULAR PROGRAMMES 100 Must See Hong Kong Movies “100 Must See Hong Kong Movies� has received very positive response from local and overseas since its launch in Oct 2011, and the Hong Kong Film Archive has succeeded in expanding its audience to a younger and more diverse mass as a result of collaborating with the Broadway Cinematheque. Entering a brand new calendar year, both venues are committed to another round of showcase to encourage new perspectives in appreciating Hong Kong Cinema. To make the programme more focus, we are condensing the film screenings to a quarterly showcase, while Broadway Cinematheque shall maintain their twice-monthly schedule. In January, films are chosen to go in line with the King Hu and Yam Kim-fai retrospectives; from February onwards, the focus will be tragic or heartracking tales of love.
Restored Treasures For film archives, presenting restored films to the public is always a wonderful occasion. For preserving our cinematic heritage is a primary goal of archives and restoring films ravaged by time is an integral part of that goal. It is with great joy that the Hong Kong Film Archive is presenting the new series, Restored Treasures, featuring films from all over the world that had enjoyed different forms of restoration. The program will continue by screening a restored film the first Sunday of every month, featuring a mix of works from Hong Kong and abroad.
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EFFIE’S REVIEW
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The Old Man and The Ox A celebration of an ancient, disappearing way of life and a beautiful relationship between the three who live in a forgotten world.
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By EFFIE TSUI
here is no desperate struggle between heroes and the flick of finger of fate, no incessant hazards lurking beneath the surface of a quiet life, nor even any thrilling plot turns or startling revelations in Old Partner, the first feature length documentary directed by South-Korean independent director Lee Chung-ryoul. Yet, this is a film impossible to spoil. The story unfolds lentamente, prosaically as a chronicle foretold, with frames imbued with the fresh colors of nature and countryside. Subtly, it touches your heart, brings you nostalgia for homeland, and leaves your eyes brimming with tears. Simple as the title indicates, the documentary centers on the last year’s company of an ancient ox with an elderly farming couple, Choe Won-gun and Lee Sam-sun, who live in a village of hilly areas in eastern South Korea. Probably the oldest in the country, the ox lived 40 years, more than twice as long as the average age of his same kind. Not dignity and glory as a venerable did the ox gain due to his longevity, nor did he enjoy peaceful and relaxing retirement, but till his last days of life, the nameless, slow-moving beast of burden sticks
to performing the actions that have defined his daily existence for almost forty years. He ruminates. He pulls a plow in the fields and sometimes a cart, on which sits Mr. Choe, moving back and forth with exquisite slowness as the world goes rushing by. His body is bony and massive. His face is a perpetual enigma, with his eyes expressing docility, steadfastness, or sadness of declining years. When the bell around his neck rings, it’s either him turning his head, staring at Mr. Choe sowing the seeds in a short distance, or Mr. Choe staring at him pacing
along the country road. Affinity connects the two whom hardly separate far from each other, while a love triangle is also involved, as Ms. Lee regards him as a rival for her husband’s devotion. Mr. Choe, eighty when filmed, is frail and partially deaf, and one of his legs is debilitated by a long-ago accident. With his wife, he is taciturn and impatient most of the time, though they have raised nine children, all of whom have moved to urban areas and occasionally visit their parents. Ms. Lee, meanwhile, who has no grudge against the ox, peppers her husband but amuses audience with complaints that sound sincere and habitual. She blames her stubborn husband to keep her busy in fields at her age. She grouses that she’s tired and she has wasted her whole life on the wrong man. Mr. Choe tunes her out, but he is tenderly solicitous of the ox, always quick to
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respond whenever the ox seems to need something. Every early dawn he gets up to prepare special fodder instead of feeding him processed one, which he explains would easily induce flabby muscle and fleshiness. When told by veterinarian that the ox has, at most, one year to last, he refuses to accept it and drives the ox to the fields as usual. The ox paces on the trail and stops to take a break between times. Mr. Choe waits on the cart watching him, no spurring and no reproach. The two old partners stay still for a while, against the background of a rising sun. In fact, the ox lives for another three years. Feebler though he becomes, he never spends a day idling around. Just like Mr. Choe and his wife, they used to cultivate in their fields to raise children, but they never cease even though their children have settled down and started careers in city. When, later in the film, Mr. Choe reluctantly goes to an agricultural fair to sell his ox, he is laughed at by others for overrating his ox and is annoyed by the low offers. Under the influence of some alcohol, he yells to other villagers a story about how the ox saved his life and how he serves like a son to him. He says in the affirmative that he will hold a funeral for the ox after he takes his last breath. The documentary is a tribute to a way of living that is fading before our eyes. The condition these three share can be
The story unfolds lentamente, prosaically, with frames imbued with the fresh colors of nature and countryside. It touches your heart, brings you nostalgia for homeland, and leaves your eyes brimming with tears. described only as happiness, though it is not the material comfort often associated with the word. Their way of living is not reduced by its simplicity and closeness to nature, but elevated. It may seem odd at first that Mr. Choe resists so-called modern way of living by keeping farming machine and pesticide away from his fields and processed fodder out of his shed, even though it adds much more burden to his frail body. In Mr. Choe’s world, working might be a way to relieve him from solitude and aging. Getting a sense of useful and alive through hard work, he seems
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to also project the feelings onto his old companions. Although the elder couple’s relationship with the beast of burden may seem a bit absurd to some, in a sophisticated way Mr. Lee shows his deep insight into the profound interspecies bonds.
EFFIE TSUI, film critic based in Hong Kong. Blogger, Traveller, Columist, Lohas. She has written about film, jazz, television, and poetry for Modern Weekly, Ming Pao, and other publications.
PROFILE
LEE Chung-ryoul is the director of <Old Partner>, which soared into an uncharted territory for Korean documentary films and independent films by attracting 2.9 million viewers. He had long worked as a freelance producer on TV broadcast films, but faced difficulty in working on subject matters of his liking due to differing interests of his clients. LEE learned documentary filmmaking virtually on his own, without belonging to any particular documentary group or receiving formal training. It can be said that a stranger to the tradition of Korean documentary filmmaking pulled off the greatest feat of all documentary films.
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Her name has never appeared in English-languag history of Chinese cinema. But she definitely should be more famous than she is. Documentary filmmaker S. Louisa Wei brought the life journey of Esther Eng, a pioneer Chinese-American female film director, to light with a 106 minutes documentary Golden Gate Silver Light. Wei seeks to remind audiences of Esther Engâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s significance in a male-dominated film industry. SUMMER, 2013 INDIE HK
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OLDEN GATE SILVER LIGHT A woman director’s legend By CHERRY LUO 13
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ESTHER ENG
Pioneer Chinese-American Female Filmmaker in Hollywood
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sther Eng made the “first Cantonese Singing-Talking Picture made in Hollywood” (1935), directed “national defense” dramas for China (1930s), gave Bruce Lee his screen debut (1941), and produced & directed the first all-Chinese motion picture in Hawaii. Yet people may never heard of this remarkable woman who directed 10 features in America and HK. “Her story is really buried because of her identity as a Chinese-American.” Louisa Wei said, “She seems to fall into the crack between American film history and Chinese film history. Nobody mentioned her, not on both sides.”
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However, her importance in film history could never been ignored since she acted as the bridge that two cultures met and interacted with each other.
Golden Gate Silver Light, premiered at the Hong Kong International Film Festival on April 1, for the first time reveals the little-known life story of Esther Eng, who began her career in film industry at the age of 22 in 1935 with the first Cantonese-language film shot in Hollywood, Heartache.
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Born and raised in San Francisco, Eng went to Hong Kong when she was 23 years old and quickly became a celebrated director and received a lot of coverage from news media, reporting her progress in filmmaking as well as her self-fashioning and love affairs with actresses. After helming 5 films in Hong Kong, Eng returned to San Francisco at the urging of her father before the Pacific War broke out. Esther wanted to see Chinese-American films soar beyond their Chinatown base and into mainstream American theatres without sacrificing their cultural roots, but most of her work was little documented in the U.S. outside of Chinatowns, with the exception of Golden Gate Girl (1941), a film that incorporates the fundraising endeavor in support of the Chinese war effort dubbed “A Bowl of Rice Campaign”. In 1949, Eng made her last independent film and moved to New York to open three restaurants, which she ran until her death in 1970. In the course of tracking Eng’s life stories and her works, the Hong Kong Film Archive is a vital repository for such materials since Ng Kam-ha (Esther Eng), as a prominent figure in HK cinema of the 1930s, “belongs” to both Hong Kong and her native America. Actually, the documentary project kicked off when the Hong Kong Film Archive received a donation of over 600 personal photographs of Eng. Since then, Wei tracks down as many surviving family members and co-workers – many former Cantonese opera stars fleeing the war in the 1930s – as she could to paint a sketch of the unconventional woman.
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THE WORLD SEEN BY WOMEN DIRECTORS “It’s easy to identify a woman director’s point of view.” Wei recognizes from the only two existing films of Eng and the synopsis of her other films strong thematic concerns of women’s life and fate: “In her stories, women’s roles are very strong. She always put women at the center of the story. They are the most important forces to push the story forward.” Eng’s women’s roles are never passive in their choice of lovers or fates. There are women who fall in love with a wrong man or a woman being a heroine in a war as a pilot. All these roles are not in line with traditional ways of depicting women as a mother, a daughter, or a wife. As Wei put it, “Eng extend women’s roles to those outside the family.” Wei has been fascinated with the subject of women filmmakers since she viewed the 1985 debut film of Hu Mei, Army Nurse. In 2009, co-authored with Y. Yang, Louisa Wei wrote a book Women’s Cinema: Dialogues with Chinese and Japanese Female Directors. She interviewed 27 female directors from Japan, Hong
Top: S. Louisa Wei Left Bottom: Louisa Shooting in Honolulu Chinatown Right Bottom: Poster - Golden Gate Silver Light
rectorial debut Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, for its value in presenting a missing part of Chinese women’s history during the Mao’s years on films. The film stared Li Xiaolu (Xiu Xiu), a 15-year-old girl living in the city of Chengdu, moves out to be “reeducated” in the countryside with a nomadic Tibetan, during China’s Cultural
“Women directors don’t have a sense of community in the film industry. This world is still dominated by men.” Kong and the Mainland China on their ways of filming in the male-dominated film industry. Wei thinks highly of Joan Chen’s di-
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Revolution, instituted by Mao for getting rid of political enemies. But she was never able to go back to the city. Wei praises Chen’s film for its ability to contribute to a complete women history.
“Women’s way of looking at the gender issues are naturally different from men.” Wei compares a similar situation of two films by a female and male director and finds interesting results. If a middle age woman doesn’t pay attention to her looks, Wei says that a male director would use this as an excuse for her husband to have extra-marital affairs. However, in a female director’s interpretation, it is because the man has an issue with a lover that the wife would to pay close attention to her look. “Their ways of dealing with male and female roles are often subtly different.” Wei says that is the interesting point in doing research on gender issues in film industry.
FEATURES
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“Their ways of dealing with male and female roles are often subtly different.” Wei says that is the interesting point in doing research on gender issues in film industry. “Women director don’t have a sense of community in the film industry. This world is still dominated by men.” Wei says, but adds that women directors could do better than male directors in documentaries, especially when family affairs and intimate communication are involved. Actually, there are more documentary filmmakers than feature filmmakers among women. The reason is women have an easier way to communicate with others. They don’t pose a threatening presence to people. “Women are better listeners” Wei thinks that’s why women directors do documentaries better.
Esther Eng (third left) at work. Courtesy of Frank Bren
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oncerning the conditions for younger generations of independent filmmakers in Hong Kong, Wei suggests that the most important issue at hand is the cost of living. “In the Mainland, you can live in Tibet with a few thousands yuan for a year to shoot. But this is impossible for filmmakers in Hong Kong.” Wei points out the sad truth that when people are busy making money, they don’t have time to pursue their film career.
“Just go ahead and make films! It’s a pity that female students always quit the filmmaking too quickly after graduation.” Wei urges that the world needs more voices from female directors. Existing examples like the 27 women directors Wei interviewed have proved that it is not impossible for female directors to compete with their male counterparts. Hopefully, the Esther Eng’s story would lend young women the courage they need and a sense of mission.
Even though old footage of San Francisco, New York, and the 1930’s and 1940’s China cost a fortune, “I can use school facilities.” Wei explains that City University of Hong Kong helped her a lot in making Golden Gate Silver Light look like a million dollar production. Now an associate professor with the City University of Hong Kong’s School of Creative Media, Wei expects to see her students, especially female ones, to pursue a career in filmmaking. Even though Hong Kong government is quite generous in giving funds, whether the funds are used properly is another question. Talking about this, Wei is worried for the future of Hong Kong indie films.
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SUMMER, 2013 INDIE HK FEATURES
FEATURES
“Big Joy” explores Broughton’s passionate embrace of a life of pansexual transcendence and a fiercely independent mantra: ‘follow your own weird’. By ZHANG DI
When
STEPHEN SILHA Meets JAMES BROUGHTON 19
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hen Stephen Silha stepped into the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1979, he did not expect that his life would get changed dramatically. A film on showing that day was made by a filmmaker whose work is quintessentially Californian – exploring and engaging the polar frontiers of wildness and civility, male and female, body and spirit—with the crash of Pacific Ocean waves echoing throughout. Stephen Silha said he was attracted by the voiceover of the film immediately. “It was saying ‘This is it and I am it and you are it and so is that’.” Silha says. “That is folksy yet meaty. ” The filmmaker is James Broughton. His most famous film The Bed (1967) featured a number of San Francisco luminaries (including Alan Watts, Imogen Cunningham, Anna Halprin, Gavin Arthur, Jean Varda) cavorting on a bed, which rolled over the hills of Marin County. It was pioneering in its celebration of naked bodies, and was the quintessential hippie film. Ten years later in 1989, when Silha met Broughton and had a chat with him, he could hardly believe that this lively man was already 75 years old. “I have never seen such a lively nice old guy before. I want to know, where did he get that? ” Silha says, adding that Broughton became his mentor on how to live a good life and motivated him to make an independent film about Broughton. When calculating the risk of living their own lives, people often get the math wrong. Broughton was just a big inspiration in this regard. Died in May 1999, naked, he was a man who met his male soul mate at 61 and lived together for 25 years. “I believe the way they lived together, the way they created things together, and the interplay between these two would interest the audience.” Silha says. However, nowadays, it seems that all but a small number of experimental film freaks and poetry aficionados have forgotten about Broughton. Hence, the
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Top: Stephen Silha Bottom: James Broughton
the film BIG JOY: The Adventures of James Broughton came into being. For Silha, it is hard to sum up how they gave birth to their “new baby” which involved raising money, composing music, and getting in trouble with the police for having a bed on the streets of Austin. None of this is a cakewalk. Some people may think that good ideas are dying on the vine for lack of money. However, the crowd turns out to be pretty talented at identifying and bootstrapping promising creative endeavors. Silha created an engaging sales video
for promoting the BIG JOY: The Adventures of James Broughton on Kickstarter, the highest-profile website engaged in the crowd funding of new ideas, including everything from board games to offbeat tech gadgets to movies. The video did the job: the featurelength documentary breezed by its $12,000 funding goal, raising more than $12,976 from 128 backers in a month. These patrons won’t receive an ownership stake. All they’ll get in return is a warm, fuzzy feeling and a thank-you gift scaled to the size of their pledge, starting with a thank-you on the movie’s Facebook page and a downloadable video clip
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Pictures Taken In BIG JOY
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offered to anyone who donated at least $5.
“ Follow your own wired. Make the film you can make. Does not paly the film everybody else can see it. Praise and Thanks, and More Bubbly Please. ”
when I first used Kicksrarter, 80% of the donations came from my friends whereas only 40% of the donations fell into this category the second time.” Raising money, in Silha’s opinion, is not as a big problem as it used to be. Thanks to the advancement of technology, the total money required for such an independent film is largely reduced. Currently, a simple camera or even an iPhone can help reach the goal. It would cost them “roughly 40 million dollars” in the old days, he says in a relief. Getting the money ready is just the beginning of the story. The shooting and postproduction process usually took years. Silha says that he feels sad after all is done. “You work on a film for four years, molding and shaping it, creating and then ‘killing your children’ as you edit out scenes. ”
Silha regards websites like Kickstarter as reliable and long-term sources for
Together with his team, Silha cut out many crucial things, including 16 interviews. “Finding the right person to interview is always paramount. Some may not in the mood of being interviewed,” Silha says, referring to the fact that Broughton’s
daughter turned down the interview request due to some personal reasons. When comes to his team members, Silha cannot be more grateful for what they have done. The film cannot be produced without them,” he says, adding that their musician is “a highlight” since they applied soft music as a major key, which is mostly employed as a minor key. Silha and his team ritually gave birth to the film, all 82 minutes of it, at the annual Summer Gathering of Radical Faeries at Breitenbush Hot Springs in Detroit, Oregon. It was apt and poetic that the organizing committee staged a sneak preview of their work-in-progress there. For it was there that Silha met James Broughton in 1989, at a winter gathering of Radical Faeries; they were assigned to the same cabin. Silha never confuses about his dual role as an independent filmmaker and a journalist. Instead, he enjoys the interplay between the two roles. “They play off each other. The experience of journalism adds to my integrity in the filmmaking process,” He says. “As a filmmaker, I learn to think visually instead of just in words.”
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FEATURES The year 2013 is the centennial of Broughton and Silha is more than happy to participate in the Hong Kong Independent Film Festival. “It’s an honor to be part of a festival with over 300 films from 68 countries, showing in various places around this polyglot Asian citystate.” He says. Roger Garcia, the director of Hong Kong Independent Film, was the person who invited Silha to bring James Broughton’s works—a fusion of West and East, male and female, fast and slow, this and that — into Hong Kong.
James born November 10th in Modesto, California
First poetry book: Songs for Certain Children, San Francisco: Centaur Press
First solo film, “Mother’s Day”Broughton and Kael separate
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1947
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“When I met the festival’s director, Roger Garcia, in New York at Independent Film Week in 2011, he knew Broughton’s film and immediately warmed to the idea of a retrospective.” Silha says, adding that he also offered introductions to other festivals that “might consider doing the same”.
“The Pleasure Garden” wins special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, presented by Jean Cocteau
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The reception to the film was all they could expect. Critics raved about the new independent film. Audience was inspired.
Professor, Department of Creative Arts, San Francisco State University (through ‘76) - Starts teaching in the filmmaking department of the San Francisco Art Institute - Makes “The Bed” (20 min) (commissioned by the Royal Film Archive of Belgium
1966
However, these were not all Silha purses. In 1999, he witnessed Broughton’s death with champagne on his lips. Broughton’s last words were: praise and thanks, and more bubbly please.
1970 - Makes “This Is It” (10 min)
1970
Silha says he wants to inspire people as they walk out of the theatre. “Follow your own wired. Make the film you can make. Does not paly the film everybody else can see it, ”he says.
JAMES BROUGHTON TIMELINE
It is certainly going to be a bumpy road.
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Makes “Dreamwood” (45 min), his longest and most Jungian film
Receives Film Culture’s Twelfth Independent Film Award for his outstanding work of thirty years, and was cited as “the grand classic master of Independent Cinema”- Meets life partner, Joel Singer
1972
1975
Selected by the American Film Institute as the recipient of the 1989 American Film Institute Award for Independent Film and Video Artists (Lifetime Achievement Award)
1989
Publishes Big Joy (chapbook), Port Townsend , WA: Syzygy Press
1994
James dies May 17th, at home in Port Townsend
1999
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THE YOUTH
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Seven days together By VIVIAN HUANG and ate the steamed bun picked up in garbage can, impressed Leo most deeply. “ The kid actor was too afraid of trash to accomplish it after many times so that I demonstrated how to perform. But I was a neat freak in fact.” Leo recalled over coffee. Another challenge in shooting process was that four kid actors, who have not been trained professionally, were too naughty to perform as planned. Finally, Leo had to push himself into a rigorous director and supervised the kids strictly although he was very good-tempered usually.
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he source of creative inspiration came from one of news on local newspaper of Leo’s hometown. In Jiangxi, a theft burglarized his neighbor who was an old man. The theft implored the old man to take care of his young son when arrested due to burglary. The old man kept his words and raised the kid up until theft’s release. “ The news made a profound impression on me through people’s special identity and abnormality. Later on I decided to make it into a film inspired by Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist, which featured an old theft and an orphan.” Leo explained. Shot around seven days in Jiangxi Province, the low-budget film is not ostensibly about the city itself, which includes characteristic architectures and local food like meat pie soup. Plentiful off-camera scenes in Leo’s childhood memory also sparkles the film. It is unfolded that the director still preserves traces of childhood. “Actually I am still a big kid, I try to infuse the theft’s son Dongdong with my own childhood dream.” Dongdong broke up the old man’s window in swordsman costume play is one of plots tailored to visualize the kid who like playing pranks. Realizing director’s childhood dream in plots is the beauty of independent film in Leo’s eyes. “I can express what I really want to say in my film regardless of trammels of politics and finance. Without powerful financial and crew support, competing with commercial film on visual effects or movie stars, independent film
“We got together people who run counter to each other in social rule. We shared it and we enjoyed it. Finally we named it as Together.”
The first day of film shooting in Nanchang city of Jiangxi Province in China
and finance. Without powerful financial and crew support, competing with commercial film on visual effects or movie stars, independent film will bite off more than it can chew. So we have to shape special director’s style for distinguishing from commercial ones.” Pursuing freedom in independent film is the raw motivation inspired him to give up CCTV’s well-paid job and come to Hong Kong for study filmmaking. Leo had a hand in filmmaking of a few Hong Kong big films or documentaries such as Action! Hong Kong! and Glory Land but this time is the most unforgettable experience. “As the director, I had to arrive at shooting site before 8 a.m. every day and discussed with actors,” There was a scenario, in which the kid was extremely hungry and ate the steamed bun picked up in garbage can,
Together was born on 2nd February in 2013 and has been in intensive editing. It will be on screen in coming June in Hong Kong Science Museum on schedule. Leo has started promotion and placed hope on his first independent film work: “We hope that we can bring audience thirty-minute surprise. Enjoy it together.”
Leo graduated from the department of Script Writing for TV and Film at Communication University of China in 2010. After graduation, he worked in CCTV2 as an editor for the programme Trade Time. He resumed studies for a master degree at the department of Fine Arts in Film, Television and Digital Media of Hong Kong Baptist University. His published individual short film works called Election and Town Boy in 2011. One of his work Life Line got the award of merit in the Competition of Short Film Production held by Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups.
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FESTIVALS
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ON THE SPOT
BIG JOY 2013 37TH HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Long been a crucial platform for Asian filmmakers to present their productions in front of the audience across the world, the 37th Hong Kong International Film Festival has carried forward its dedication to strengthen global appreciation of Chinese film culture. The festival honors filmmakers with nine awards in five categories, namely the Young Cinema Competition, the Documentary Competition, the Short Film Competition, the FIPRESCI Prize and the SIGNIS Award. The SIGNIS Award represents a salute to films that fully express social and humanitarian concerns, as well as spiritual and artistic values. The FIPRESCI Prize aims to promote young talent in Asian cinema. The Short Film Competition is funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and is a valuable platform for local and international filmmakers to exchange visions and ideas about film as a unique form of art. The Documentary Competition pays tribute precisely to documentarians who inspire audiences with their insights. The Young Cinema Competition aims to discover and honor budding filmmakers who push the envelope with their unique and innovative works.
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FESTIVALS
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FESTIVALS
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Here goes the text
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FILMAKERS’ CORNER
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Anson Mak is a film, video and sound artist. After graduated from the School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University in 1991, she worked in RTHK and TVB for a short period and realized that the mainstream TV was not a place for her. She then developed her career as an art administrator. At the same time, she continued to write and make music, film and video works in the 90’s.
“To be a successful filmmaker, you need to develop your own style and flairs. If not, you will be stuck copying other people’s ideas for the rest of your career.” How to get my work exposed more to the audience? The first and easiest idea is to show a bunch of your friends, and have them spread the word about it. Before you know it, more and more people will want to see your piece of art. Another way to have it shown to the world is to enter it in a traditional media art exhibit (like paintings, drawings, etc.). You may need to pull a few strings to get it in, but people love to see non-traditional media art mixed in with traditional. Atomfilms.com is a great place to start. They are very stringent on their choices for films, but if you can get in there, you are going to be exposed twice as fast. Remember, never turn off your camera!
How to choose right camera? What equipment do you recommend to film a documentary in close film look? This is the centerpiece of your filmmaking gear package. What camera you choose depends on your budget, how you want your footage to look and the type of shooting you are doing. You can shoot a documentary on anything from your iPhone to a DSLR or a top of line Canon XF305 HD camcorder. Whatever camera you choose, make sure you capture excellent audio as well. Another important thing is that your video camera has a large sensor size and a lens adapter. The larger the sensor it is, the closer you are to a film look. The best choice would be a 35mm camera, which is the most expensive choice, but with the improvement of the digital technology of today you can easily achieve the 35mm look using some of the following equipment: Red Digital Camera,Canon 1d Mark IV,Canon 7D,Canon 5D Mark II,Panasonic HVX200 with 35mm Redrock adapter.
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How to control external sound effectively when shooting? While consumer cameras are not likely to have XLR inputs, many do have mic inputs that will enable you to plug in an external mic so that you can get the microphone closer to your subject and away from the camera. Even on some more expensive prosumer cameras, the onboard mic will capture some of the noise from the camera. The best way to avoid that and also ensure that you get a more professional final product is using an external shotgun or lavalier microphone or even a handheld digital recorder. If your camcorder does not have XLR inputs and you want to use a mic that has XLR connectivity, you can always solve that problem with a camcorder XLR adapter.
What key quality makes a good filmmaker? All filmmakers, whether come from Hollywood, Indie, or Art, have a distinct feature that makes them different from every other film artist. To be a successful filmmaker, you need to develop your own style and flairs. If not, you will be stuck copying other people’s ideas for the rest of your career. You need to stop trying to copy all the styles that you see. When you are behind the camera, just let your feelings flow. Know your scene, let it come from your gut, and shoot it. You will be amazed after long-term practice. You may still have not cemented your style even after a few years of trying to do this, but you are well on your way. This process will take time, but it is worth its weight in gold. When your audience says, “I have never seen anything like that before!” You will know you have got it.
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ong Kong Indie film has its personality. The spirit of independence is tightly related to the local culture, history, social movements, economy and more. Hong Kong Indie film is not only an artistic expression, but also acts as a means of voice expression representing individuals to pursue personal will or the whole society to express the spirit of freedom.
Why independent film is significant to Hong Kong?
therefore to mirror some local problems covering politics, economy and society.
Representing voices, especially some that are ignored by the mainstream media, is what most indie films like to do. Indie films tell the story from an unusual and artistic perspective, and then rise attentions on some local social issues such as compensated dating
Taking a great fresh indie film director Siuyea Lo as an instance, both Loâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s indie films Love More and Days After n Coming are documentaries and focus on social movements. Documentaries are boring compared to splendid action films and hard to survive in the market ob-
The rise of Hong Kong indie film went back to the 60s. Independent filmmakers took the first step on experimental films. With great efforts of College Students Film Association, Hong Kong indie films rose sharply and graded attention in the 70s. Till the 80s, no evident difference was shown between local indie films and mainstream films. Market and recourses were shared equally. However, while mainstream films tended to be more commercial, indie films were facing downhill from the 90s.
Hong Kong Indie film is not only an artistic expression, but also acts as a means of voice expression representing individuals to pursue personal will or the whole society to express the spirit of freedom. and surrogacy. They drew their materials from ordinary beings and storiettes in the society, and therefore to mirror some local problems covering politics, economy and society. and surrogacy. They drew their materials from ordinary beings and storiettes in the society, and
viously. Nevertheless, no one can deny that this kind of films as vivid historical records has a vital role to reveal social problems.
Indie is an attitude
MUSEUM
SUMMER, 2013 INDIE HK
PAST AND PRESENT From Hong Kong Indie Films to World Indie Films By LEMON LIN
Vincent Tsui, the art director of ying e chi, a non-profit organization strongly supporting indie films, says that the reason why it is called “indie” is because they have no supports from big filmmakers, no enormous fundings and no sufficient human resources. As Vincent said, indie film is not aimed to become mainstream or withstand the mainstream films. Indie is an attitude. Hong Kongers have their will and thoughts. They love to enjoy their freedom of speech and express their voices from diverse perspectives, and one of the best and artistic ways is the indie film.
World Indie Film development Classically, an independent film was one that is made outside of the conventional studio system, be that Hollywood, Bollywood or Pinewood, with an emphasis on character development and a strong, original and/or controversial storyline.
Specifically, any movie that is funded with less than 50% of money that comes from one of the “big six” major film studios, which are Columbia Pictures (MGM and UA), 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures/Touchstone Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios.
and the Paramount Case, the major studios attempted to lure audiences with spectacle. The 1950s and early 1960s saw a Hollywood dominated by musicals, historical epics, and other films, which benefited from these advances. This proved commercially viable during most of the 1950s.
In 1908, the Trust, a cartel, was established to hold a monopoly on film production and distribution comprising all the major film companies. Plenty of filmmakers who declined to join or were refused into the Trust come to be described as indie. The Trust was soon ended by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, which canceled the patent on raw film and all MPPC patents. The independent films were legalized and have laid the groundwork for the studio system of classical Hollywood cinema.
In1969, Dennis Hopper, an American actor, made his writing and directing debut with Easy Rider. Along with his producer Peter Fonda, Hopper was responsible for one of the first completely independent film of New Hollywood. Within a month, another young Corman trainee, Francis Ford Coppola, made his debut in Spain at the Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival with The Rain People, a film he had produced through his own company. Though The Rain People was largely overlooked by American audiences, Zoetrope would became a powerful force in New Hollywood.
Following the advent of television
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The 1990s saw the rise and success of independent films not only through the film festival circuit but at the box office as well while established actors, such as Bruce Willis, John Travolta, and Tim Robbins, found success themselves both in independent films and Hollywood studio films. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1990 from New Line Cinema grossed over $100 million in the United States making it the most successful indie film in box-office history. Independent movie-making has also resulted in the proliferation and repopularization of short films and short film festivals. Full-length films are often showcased at film festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival, the Slamdance Film Festival, the South By Southwest film festival, the Raindance Film Festival, ACE Film Festival, or the Cannes Film Festival. Award winners from these exhibitions are more likely to get picked up for distribution by major film studios.
Independent filmmakers are no longer dependent on major studios to provide them with the tools they need to produce a film. Using the advanced technology, everyone can become a film-maker. Today, due to the large volume of inexpensive, high end digital film equipment available at the consumer level, independent filmmakers are no longer dependent on major studios to provide them with the tools they need to produce a film. Moreover the prevalence of smartphone and tablets contribute significantly to the development of the indie film. Using the advanced technology, everyone can become a film-maker. Postproduction has also been simplified by non-linear editing software available for home computers and thousands of Apps available for ordinary consumers. Thanks to the falling cost of technology, thousands of small production companies can obtain the resources they need to produce films at a fraction of the cost of the big Hollywood studios.
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Left top: Dennis Hopper, an American actor Right top: Poster- The Rain People Middle: Francis Ford Coppola, an American Film Director Bottom: Sundance Film Festival
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BACKSTAGE
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FESTIVALS
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Symopsis: Happy People: A Year in the Taiga is a documentary film directed by Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyu kov and produced by Herzog. The film depicts the life of the people in the village of Bakhta along the Yenisei Riv er in Siberian Taiga. The film premiered in Germany in November 2010, had its United States premiere at the 2010 Tel luride Film Festival, and the U.S. West Coast premiere on 6 March 2011 at the San Francisco Green Film Festival
Synopsis: Dark Blood is a film directed by George Sluizer, written by Jim Barton, and starring River Phoenix, Judy Davis, and Jonathan Pryce. The film wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t completed due to the death of Phoenix shortly before the end of the project and remained unfinished for 19 years. It pr emiered to a private guest audience on September 27, 2012, at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands. The film was shown twice more, publicly, on October 2, 2012 at the festival. It was shown at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2013 and is scheduled to be shown at the Miami International Film Festival in March 2013. Synopsis: Declaration of War is about the nightmare that every parent with a sick newborn fears, that something is not quite right with their child. This French film by ValĂŠrie Donzelli, who also shares a lead role, is ultimately about coping with experiences that one cannot prepare for in life. Interestingly, Declaration of War is an autobiography of the two leads in the film, which enables them to accurately tell the story from their point-of-view and how they persevered with the circumstance. 38
EDITOR’S CHOICE
SUMMER, 2013 INDIE HK
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
“Herzog lends the golden touch that is his voice to the film, making the grueling, harsh winter landscape lyrical and poetic.” by Bernard Boo
uvll.
Dark Blood “Dark Blood is a movie that will stay with you; not only because of the extreme situation surrounding the film, but because it is an exceptionally visualized film.” by Willie von Tagen
Declaration of War “Instead of focusing on the misfortune of the tumor itself, the film takes a different and refreshing direction by focusing on how the couple deals with the tragedy.” by Dustin Jansick, Founder of Way Too Indie
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