Hassan (Sahal Zaman) is a Hong-Kong-born Pakistani kid waiting for refugee status to Canada. His father dies in a car accident that involves taxi driver Yat (Anthony Wong). An unexpected bond forms between the two when Hassan joins a refugees' gang and is rescued by Yat during a police crackdown. However, Hassan soon discovers that Yat was responsible for his father's death. (Sources: Golden Scene Cinema and Mubi)
This is a debut feature by Hong Kong based, Malaysian born director Lau Kok-rui who cut his teeth working on documentaries. The movie received six nominations at the 59th Golden Horse Awards in 2022. Lau won Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay, with Anthony Wong picking up Best Leading Actor.
The Sunny Side of the Street is produced by Petra Group's Vinod Sekhar, Winnie Tsang from Golden Scene, as well as Soi Cheang (Limbo) and Peter Yam (Blue Island). It will...
This is a debut feature by Hong Kong based, Malaysian born director Lau Kok-rui who cut his teeth working on documentaries. The movie received six nominations at the 59th Golden Horse Awards in 2022. Lau won Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay, with Anthony Wong picking up Best Leading Actor.
The Sunny Side of the Street is produced by Petra Group's Vinod Sekhar, Winnie Tsang from Golden Scene, as well as Soi Cheang (Limbo) and Peter Yam (Blue Island). It will...
- 3/9/2023
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
The curators of the 2022 edition of the BFI London Film Festival have programmed a total of 164 feature films, including 23 world premieres, 6 international premieres and 15 European premieres, with a special programme of over 20 features and 15 short films available digitally across the whole of the UK on BFI Player until October 23.
The films are grouped in thematic strands: Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family and Treasures, and will also include TV series.
Over 60 countries are represented, with 41 of the programme from female and non-binary directors and creators or co-directors and co-creators, while ethnically diverse directors and creators make up 34 of the line-up.
Explore the full Programme Here and find all the information about tickets and booking Here
And now browse the selection of Asian Titles of the BFI London Film Festival:
Official Competition Nezouh
Nezouh
Soudade Kaadan – UK-Syria-France 2022. 104min
Soudade Kaadan turns to her Syrian roots for this wry,...
The films are grouped in thematic strands: Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family and Treasures, and will also include TV series.
Over 60 countries are represented, with 41 of the programme from female and non-binary directors and creators or co-directors and co-creators, while ethnically diverse directors and creators make up 34 of the line-up.
Explore the full Programme Here and find all the information about tickets and booking Here
And now browse the selection of Asian Titles of the BFI London Film Festival:
Official Competition Nezouh
Nezouh
Soudade Kaadan – UK-Syria-France 2022. 104min
Soudade Kaadan turns to her Syrian roots for this wry,...
- 9/5/2022
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Chan Tze Woon’s “Blue Island,” a doc-narrative hybrid exploring Hong Kong’s recent protest movement and ensuing crackdown, won Hot Docs’ Best International Feature Documentary Award and a Cnd. 10,000 cash prize, it was announced Saturday in Toronto at the festival’s awards ceremony, held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
The film was cited by the jury for its “evocative use of re-enactments interwoven with traditional documentary forms to create a rich, socially-grounded cinematic tapestry.”
North American rights to “Blue Island” were picked up by New York-headquartered documentary distributor Icarus Films in advance of the film’s world premiere at Hot Docs, which is an Academy Award qualifying festival for feature documentaries. Produced by Peter Yam, “Blue Island” now automatically qualifies for consideration in the Academy’s Best Documentary Feature category without the standard theatrical run, provided it complies with Academy rules.
The International Feature Documentary Competition section saw the...
The film was cited by the jury for its “evocative use of re-enactments interwoven with traditional documentary forms to create a rich, socially-grounded cinematic tapestry.”
North American rights to “Blue Island” were picked up by New York-headquartered documentary distributor Icarus Films in advance of the film’s world premiere at Hot Docs, which is an Academy Award qualifying festival for feature documentaries. Produced by Peter Yam, “Blue Island” now automatically qualifies for consideration in the Academy’s Best Documentary Feature category without the standard theatrical run, provided it complies with Academy rules.
The International Feature Documentary Competition section saw the...
- 5/7/2022
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
For the first time in two years the Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival is hosting in-person premieres and screenings, after Covid-19 forced the 2020 and 2021 editions of the annual event to unfold virtually. To celebrate, Hot Docs’ programming director Shane Smith selected 226 films from 2563 submissions to screen in-person and online beginning April 28 in Toronto. The lineup includes 63 world and 47 international premieres across 15 programs.
From Lyme Disease (“The Quiet Epidemic”) to Hong Kong’s history of protest (“Blue Island”) to the lucrative world of international pigeon racing (“Million Dollar Pigeons”), the 29th edition of Hot Docs offers up an assortment of titles from 63 countries that tackle a myriad of issues.
“I think of it as a buffet or dinner table that we are setting,” says Smith. “We are looking for as much diversity in the courses that are being served. We are putting together this delicious menu and finding as much variety as we can.
From Lyme Disease (“The Quiet Epidemic”) to Hong Kong’s history of protest (“Blue Island”) to the lucrative world of international pigeon racing (“Million Dollar Pigeons”), the 29th edition of Hot Docs offers up an assortment of titles from 63 countries that tackle a myriad of issues.
“I think of it as a buffet or dinner table that we are setting,” says Smith. “We are looking for as much diversity in the courses that are being served. We are putting together this delicious menu and finding as much variety as we can.
- 4/28/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
New York-headquartered documentary distributor Icarus Films has picked up all North American rights to Hong Kong protest film “Blue Island.” The film plays this week at the HotDocs Documentary Festival in Toronto, Canada.
Directed by Chan Tze Woon (“Yellowing”), the film confronts the large-scale protests in Hong Kong, describing events through a mix of documentary footage and filmed reenactments.
The distributor has not yet elaborated release plans, but says that it is taking booking requests from museums, arts organizations, film festivals and theaters across North America.
“A new wave of young people took back the streets, as one generation after another has done throughout Hong Kong’s history. Bullets fly. Fires ignite. White tear gas and blue water cannons encroach on public spaces. The past, the present, and the future converge,” said Icarus.
The film is informed by the life-defining experiences of three men: Chen Hak-Chi, a mainland China-born intellectual who swam to Hong Kong,...
Directed by Chan Tze Woon (“Yellowing”), the film confronts the large-scale protests in Hong Kong, describing events through a mix of documentary footage and filmed reenactments.
The distributor has not yet elaborated release plans, but says that it is taking booking requests from museums, arts organizations, film festivals and theaters across North America.
“A new wave of young people took back the streets, as one generation after another has done throughout Hong Kong’s history. Bullets fly. Fires ignite. White tear gas and blue water cannons encroach on public spaces. The past, the present, and the future converge,” said Icarus.
The film is informed by the life-defining experiences of three men: Chen Hak-Chi, a mainland China-born intellectual who swam to Hong Kong,...
- 4/27/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Two Hong Kong protest-related films that are unlikely to ever be screened in their home territory will take center stage at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival, in the event’s Chinese independent documentaries section. The festival runs at multiple venues May 6-15, 2022.
The eight-title Chinese independent documentaries section will give “Blue Island” by Chan Tze Woon (“Yellowing”) its Asian premiere and a world premiere to “The Grass is Greener on the Other Side” by Crystal Wong.
The two films explore the fate of Hong Kong against the backdrop of the aftermath of the 2019 protests. The sometimes violent pro-democracy protests were sparked by the proposal of law to allow suspects to stand trial in mainland China, which operates a legal system different from Hong Kong’s common law system.
The protests were largely silenced by Beijing’s injection of a national security law into the city’s legal system in June...
The eight-title Chinese independent documentaries section will give “Blue Island” by Chan Tze Woon (“Yellowing”) its Asian premiere and a world premiere to “The Grass is Greener on the Other Side” by Crystal Wong.
The two films explore the fate of Hong Kong against the backdrop of the aftermath of the 2019 protests. The sometimes violent pro-democracy protests were sparked by the proposal of law to allow suspects to stand trial in mainland China, which operates a legal system different from Hong Kong’s common law system.
The protests were largely silenced by Beijing’s injection of a national security law into the city’s legal system in June...
- 4/6/2022
- by Vivienne Chow
- Variety Film + TV
The 29th annual Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival will open with Jennifer Baichwal’s “Into the Weeds,” about a former groundskeeper who battles an agrochemical corporation after his cancer diagnosis, it was announced this morning at a media conference in Toronto unveiling the full slate.
The acclaimed Toronto filmmaker is best known for her trio of visually arresting collaborations with Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky exploring impact of humans on the planet, such as “Manufactured Landscapes.” She is the first director in Hot Docs history to have a second film open the festival, and among the 49% of female directors in its 2022 official selection.
“Into the Weeds” is one of 63 titles receiving their world premieres at Hot Docs, which returns to live screenings for the first time since 2019, presenting 226 films from 63 countries across 15 programs. Hot Docs runs April 28 to May 8.
“We are elated to be able to bring these outstanding, outspoken stories to Toronto cinemas,...
The acclaimed Toronto filmmaker is best known for her trio of visually arresting collaborations with Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky exploring impact of humans on the planet, such as “Manufactured Landscapes.” She is the first director in Hot Docs history to have a second film open the festival, and among the 49% of female directors in its 2022 official selection.
“Into the Weeds” is one of 63 titles receiving their world premieres at Hot Docs, which returns to live screenings for the first time since 2019, presenting 226 films from 63 countries across 15 programs. Hot Docs runs April 28 to May 8.
“We are elated to be able to bring these outstanding, outspoken stories to Toronto cinemas,...
- 3/30/2022
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art has set Audrey Diwan’s Happening and The African Desperate by Martine Syms will bookend the 51st edition of their collaboration, New Directors/New Films running April 20–May 1 in NYC.
The festival will introduce 26 features and 11 shorts and total of 39 directors — 21 of which are women.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone to the lineup,” said La Frances Hui, curator of MoMa’s film department and event co-char.
Happening (L’Événement), winner of the 2021 Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion, is the portrait of a young woman attempting to secure an illegal abortion in 1960s provincial France. It was acquired by IFC Films and will be released May 6.
The African Desperate, a debut feature from Syms, rushes through 24 hours in the life of protagonist Palace...
The festival will introduce 26 features and 11 shorts and total of 39 directors — 21 of which are women.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone to the lineup,” said La Frances Hui, curator of MoMa’s film department and event co-char.
Happening (L’Événement), winner of the 2021 Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Lion, is the portrait of a young woman attempting to secure an illegal abortion in 1960s provincial France. It was acquired by IFC Films and will be released May 6.
The African Desperate, a debut feature from Syms, rushes through 24 hours in the life of protagonist Palace...
- 3/29/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Golden Lion winner “Happening” will open the 2022 New Directors/New Films Festival, Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art announced Tuesday.
Now in its 51st year, the New Directors/New Films Festival screens the best films made by young filmmakers, many of which tend to be their debut features. The festival has served as an early showcase for many notable directors, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar Wai, Guillermo del Toro and Luca Guadagnino. This year, the festival will screen 26 features and 11 shorts.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone for the lineup,” 2022 Nd/Nf co-chair and MoMa department of film curator La Frances Hui said in a statement. “This year’s new directors look inward and draw on events past and present...
Now in its 51st year, the New Directors/New Films Festival screens the best films made by young filmmakers, many of which tend to be their debut features. The festival has served as an early showcase for many notable directors, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichardt, Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee, Lynne Ramsay, Michael Haneke, Wong Kar Wai, Guillermo del Toro and Luca Guadagnino. This year, the festival will screen 26 features and 11 shorts.
“Portraits of individuals and communities navigating uncertain and turbulent circumstances in pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and survival set a remarkably contemplative tone for the lineup,” 2022 Nd/Nf co-chair and MoMa department of film curator La Frances Hui said in a statement. “This year’s new directors look inward and draw on events past and present...
- 3/29/2022
- by Wilson Chapman
- Variety Film + TV
“The Vanishing,” “Yoga Village,” “Science Fiction” and “Transfariana” took top Visions du Réel industry awards at an online ceremony webcast from Switzerland on Tuesday night.
Seventeen awards went in all to a total 16 recipients with major winners addressing some of the most relevant issues of the current times — gender abuse and plurality, lockdown, China — filtered through often highly personal prisms.
Such is the case of “The Vanishing,” from Senegalese Berlin Fipresci winner Rama Thiaw (“The Revolution Won’t Be Televised”), which took the Visions Sud Est Award. Regarded as the festival’s most important industry trophy, it is the only plaudit to take in titles in both of the doc festival’s main industry strands: its VdR-Pitching section for projects and its VdR-Work in Progress showcase.
Thiaw begins her documentary remembering a dream about her own mother, Mariama, who disappeared in August 2012 after returning from Paris to Dakar. A visual...
Seventeen awards went in all to a total 16 recipients with major winners addressing some of the most relevant issues of the current times — gender abuse and plurality, lockdown, China — filtered through often highly personal prisms.
Such is the case of “The Vanishing,” from Senegalese Berlin Fipresci winner Rama Thiaw (“The Revolution Won’t Be Televised”), which took the Visions Sud Est Award. Regarded as the festival’s most important industry trophy, it is the only plaudit to take in titles in both of the doc festival’s main industry strands: its VdR-Pitching section for projects and its VdR-Work in Progress showcase.
Thiaw begins her documentary remembering a dream about her own mother, Mariama, who disappeared in August 2012 after returning from Paris to Dakar. A visual...
- 4/20/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
In its biggest single showcase, Visions du Réel staged a three-hour showcase on Saturday where directors and producers delivered online presentations of nine doc features in post. Some will undoubtedly hit major festivals in the months to come. Following, bare bones profiles of the nine Wip titles:
“About Everything There Is to Know,” dir: Sofía Velázquez (Peru)
Produced by Carolina Denegri (Cultural Mercado Central)
A group of filmmakers arrive in Santiago de Chuco, a remote village perched high in the Peruvian Andes which was the birthplace of Cesar Vallejo, the most revolutionary of Latin American poets. Their casting for a play, inspired by Vallejo characters, provides the doc feature’s storyline. It also allows Velazquez to depict the village inhabitants and a mix of
“fantasy and reality” that builds as an equal part celebration of Vallejo and more nuanced portrait of Peru, where village life is rapidly eclipsed by emigration to nearby big cities.
“About Everything There Is to Know,” dir: Sofía Velázquez (Peru)
Produced by Carolina Denegri (Cultural Mercado Central)
A group of filmmakers arrive in Santiago de Chuco, a remote village perched high in the Peruvian Andes which was the birthplace of Cesar Vallejo, the most revolutionary of Latin American poets. Their casting for a play, inspired by Vallejo characters, provides the doc feature’s storyline. It also allows Velazquez to depict the village inhabitants and a mix of
“fantasy and reality” that builds as an equal part celebration of Vallejo and more nuanced portrait of Peru, where village life is rapidly eclipsed by emigration to nearby big cities.
- 4/18/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary film festival Visions du Réel, which runs April 15-25, has unveiled the 29 projects that will be presented in its industry program, VdR-Industry.
The project will participate in the three key forums in the industry section: VdR-Pitching, VdR-Work in Progress and VdR-Rough Cut Lab. Industry activities will take place from April 14-22, both online and on site in Nyon, Switzerland – if sanitary measures permit.
The VdR-Industry Awards, including three new cash awards, will be granted by an international jury gathering Eurimage’s executive director Roberto Olla, Italian film director Roberto Minervini and Rasha Salti, independent film and visual arts curator, as well as commissioning editor for La Lucarne, Arte France.
“This year’s selection depicts not only the incredible diversity of contemporary documentary filmmaking, but also its ever wider ranging influence,” said Madeline Robert, new head of industry and artistic advisor of Visions du Réel.
VdR-Industry is designed as a springboard for projects,...
The project will participate in the three key forums in the industry section: VdR-Pitching, VdR-Work in Progress and VdR-Rough Cut Lab. Industry activities will take place from April 14-22, both online and on site in Nyon, Switzerland – if sanitary measures permit.
The VdR-Industry Awards, including three new cash awards, will be granted by an international jury gathering Eurimage’s executive director Roberto Olla, Italian film director Roberto Minervini and Rasha Salti, independent film and visual arts curator, as well as commissioning editor for La Lucarne, Arte France.
“This year’s selection depicts not only the incredible diversity of contemporary documentary filmmaking, but also its ever wider ranging influence,” said Madeline Robert, new head of industry and artistic advisor of Visions du Réel.
VdR-Industry is designed as a springboard for projects,...
- 3/19/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Film submissions arriving mysteriously with no return address are a bit unusual, even for the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Fest – an event with its fringe street creds solidly in order – says Haruna Honcoop, a Czech-Japanese filmmaker, who was planning a special section on Hong Kong docs this year – that is, until the fest had to be reformatted overnight thanks to Covid-19 shutdowns.
Still, Honcoop managed to get into the program three docs revealing particular perspectives – including the one slipped over the transom, “Red Taxi,” a short that would be illegal to screen in Hong Kong or anywhere on mainland China.
Another doc chronicling the escalating tensions in the former British colony, where residents have been facing down brutal riot police in their demonstrations for civil rights, is Zhou Bing’s “Hong Kong Moments.” With slick production values and official support from the Chinese state, this German co-production is nevertheless...
Still, Honcoop managed to get into the program three docs revealing particular perspectives – including the one slipped over the transom, “Red Taxi,” a short that would be illegal to screen in Hong Kong or anywhere on mainland China.
Another doc chronicling the escalating tensions in the former British colony, where residents have been facing down brutal riot police in their demonstrations for civil rights, is Zhou Bing’s “Hong Kong Moments.” With slick production values and official support from the Chinese state, this German co-production is nevertheless...
- 10/30/2020
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Hong Kong filmmaker Chan Tze-woon recently returned from a fruitful trip to the Busan Intl. Film Festival. The 31-year-old’s new project, “Blue Island,” was selected to take part in the Asian Cinema Fund during the festival, where he met producers from South Korea and the U.S. and film fest directors who might be interested in the project, a documentary.
“Blue Island” is a trip down memory lane of Hong Kong through the stories of three men and an account of how their experiences of historical events, including the 1967 riots, the Cultural Revolution in mainland China and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, have shaped their destinies. Chan’s project was awarded $5,000 under the fund’s Asian Network of Documentary Fund.
It was another milestone for the young filmmaker, whose “Yellowing” (2016), a documentary about Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement, won the New Asian Currents Ogawa Shinsuke Prize at the 15th Yamagata Intl.
“Blue Island” is a trip down memory lane of Hong Kong through the stories of three men and an account of how their experiences of historical events, including the 1967 riots, the Cultural Revolution in mainland China and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, have shaped their destinies. Chan’s project was awarded $5,000 under the fund’s Asian Network of Documentary Fund.
It was another milestone for the young filmmaker, whose “Yellowing” (2016), a documentary about Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement, won the New Asian Currents Ogawa Shinsuke Prize at the 15th Yamagata Intl.
- 11/1/2018
- by Vivienne Chow
- Variety Film + TV
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