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A Day In The Life Of A Filmmaker
A Day In The Life Of A Filmmaker Life Of A Filmmaker
Gwen Sin
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• Living abroad has made film director Mabel
Cheung ( 張婉婷 ) love Hong Kong more in terms of its hybrid of diverse cultures. • She is glad to be born in Hong Kong because it has shaped her from the education received and how the city has moulded her to appreciate both the
Chinese and Western cultures. • She will stay on in Hong Kong and watch its future development.
Ever wondered what a career in filmmaking is like? filmmaking is like? YHK sat down with YHK sat down with internationally internationally acclaimed and acclaimed and award-winning Hong award-winning Hong Kong film director, Kong film director, Miss Mabel Cheung Miss Mabel Cheung ( ( 張婉婷 ) to find out. out.
• 「我會留在香港，細看香港這座城市未來的發展。」
Specials
Stepping on the new premises of Ying Wa Girls’ School at Robinson Road, Mid-Levels where our interview was conducted, filmmaker Mabel Cheung was slightly nostalgic about her days of making her docufilm, “To My 19-year-old Self” ( 給十九歲的我 ). The coming-ofage documentary took her team and her almost a decade to finish production afterall, where six students were chronicled in their personal growth and journey in Ying Wa Girls’ School since 2011, from their time at the old campus on the same site, to the temporary site at Sham Shui Po.
“This documentary was supposed to be completed within four years. We started filming the girls when they were in their third year, and the plan was to finish filming by the time they were in Year Six (ie. their final year) where they would then move back to the new campus. That was the original proposal, but of course the school’s reconstruction could not be finished on time, and before we knew it, production schedule had been extended to 10 years instead!”
Other than the production schedule overrunning, Mabel also recounts other funny moments. The students who were conscious of the crew’s constant presence had resulted in the occasional teasing of their peers, would request for the filming to be halted or run away from being recorded at times. Mabel smiled at the recollection of this incident that reflected the innocence of adolescence, something she adds she never had to encounter with professional actors.
Fortunately, the girls got accustomed to such cinéma verité1 techniques in their midst. Says Mabel, “One of them even came to me out of the blue and said, ‘You have become my confidante and my ‘su-lone’ (‘tree hole’ in Cantonese - syu 6 lung 1 / 樹㝫 )2. I had to keep a straight face as a documentary film director and not to display any signs of judgement. I was also in fact secretly elated, as it also meant that trust had been established between the subjects and me over time.”
A Letter to Mabel’s 19-Year-Old Self
What will Mabel be writing to her younger self, if she could turn back the clock? She laughs when posed with this question. “I will just tell the younger me to be healthy and happy.” She elaborates philosophically about this reply, that being at that age, about to enter university during the 1970s, it was more about basic needs and helping to support the family financially. For her own growing up years, she had to take on a few jobs like teaching English and Chinese to adults; giving tuition; working in factories and even part time as a receptionist to pay for her school fees, ending up being very exhausted every day. But despite trying to juggle school and odd-jobs, Mabel remembers being happy generally, and is thankful to her supportive family and friends who helped her emotionally and financially.
Looking at Mabel’s career track, one could easily assume she has always been keen on learning more about storytelling through filmmaking. After completing her degree reading English and Psychology at the University of Hong Kong, she went on to the University of Bristol in England to pursue an Advanced Diploma in Drama and Visual Arts, and subsequently, an M.F.A. in Film Production from the New York University Graduate Film School (NYU).
Her widowed mother was initially strongly against the idea. “My mother told me the film industry was full of weird people – that the men usually belonged to the underworld and the women were prostitutes, and that educated people shouldn’t enter the film industry. She wanted me to don office attire and work in an office in Central instead.”
“I also never viewed myself as a filmmaker, as all film directors during the Eighties were macho men smoking cigars and looking very cool in their sunglasses, while calling the shots in their big cowboy hats with assistants following them all around. So at that point of time, I wanted to be a journalist instead, as I knew I would never enjoy a nine-to-five job.”
Going to Bristol was like a Bildungsroman3 for her. She was working as a production assistant for the BBC and saw for herself that her colleagues were brilliant men and women from Cambridge and Oxford universities. “They were the cream of the crop; committed and excellent in their work as soundmen; transcribers; so on and on. It was nothing like the prejudice that my mother had!”
From there onwards, the rest is history. Mabel’s first feature was about illegal immigrants in New York City’s Chinatown, where she received a grant from the Shaw Brothers when she was studying for her M.F.A at NYU.
Her encouragement to other budding filmmakers is to try to search inwardly and “find out what is real and what is the truth”, even though there are many sophisticated gadgets and technology like computer graphics, as well as lighter equipment to make films more accesibly nowadays. “You know the relationship between the Extra-Terrestrial (or simply E.T.) and the little boy in Steven Spielberg’s movie? It is real and viewers can relate to it. So, it is very important to keep yourself like a child and search ‘inside’ to find out what is genuine and what you want to share with people.”
Hong Kong as a great hybrid of diverse cultures
On a final note, Mabel reflects on the revival of the diaspora trend in Hong Kong in recent years, and shares that it is an ongoing phenomenon she often noticed as a child. Personally, she went to Bristol and NYC and had different living experiences, but home is still Hong Kong. “Being away and being abroad makes me realise I really love Hong Kong in terms of the hybrid of diverse cultures. I am glad that I was born here because it forms my whole being, from the education received and how the city has moulded me to appreciate both Chinese and Western cultures. All these factors make it a unique place. My heart shall stay with Hong Kong and I want to stay on to see its future development, and also what I am also able to offer to this city. I don’t want to abandon this city because I love it very much.”
YHK would like to thank Zonta Club of Victoria Hong Kong, Golden Scene Company Limited and Ying Wa Girls’ School for making this interview possible.
Footnotes:
1. Cinéma Verité is a style of documentary filmmaking that combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind reality. It is sometimes called observational cinema. 2. “Tree hole” ( 樹㝫 ) is a colloquial slang commonly used in Hong Kong. It signifies someone who will listen to you when you need, just like a tree hole to which you can tell your secrets freely and at ease. Example: I can always be your “su-lone” if you need somebody to talk to. 3. Coming-of-age transitional phase
