ifva: All About Us Film Festival 2023

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Organized by the Hong Kong Arts Centre, All About Us Film Festival 2023 will be held from 18 November to 10 December. Entering its third edition, the festival was founded by the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s flagship programme – ifva in 2021 as the first ethnic minority themed film festival in Hong Kong. This year’s festival will transcend barriers of ethnicity, language and gender to connect stories of separation and dispersion caused by history, war or migration in various corners of the planet and shed light on the living conditions of humans under different circumstances.

To be unveiled with the award-winning animation documentary Aurora’s Sunrise, the festival programme features many internationally award-winning or nominated short films and feature films to be screened at Louis Koo Cinema, the Hong Kong Arts Centre, along with a number of community screenings including a midnight screening of short films produced by local ethnic minority youth. All screenings will be followed by a post-screening discussion with filmmaker and guests. In addition, several community programmes, such as a first-ever Retrospective Exhibition of All About Us and two sessions of Human Library will be organized to introduce the local life experience of EMs, through which the audiences will be invited to explore and reflect on their own values together.

Diverse Screenings Reveal the Unique Experiences of Ethnic Minorities in Various Corners of The Earth

Combining animation with personal interviews and footages of a once-lost silent epic, the Opening Film Aurora’s Sunrise revives the forgotten story of a girl who survived the Armenian Genocide during the 1^st World War. The film has been nominated in Annecy Festival,

International Documentary Film Festival and received the Grand Prize at Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights. It will be screened with Boju, a short film produced by local ethnic minority youth.

Short Film Programme: In Sisterhood, We Trust reveals the stories of a group of resilient ethnic minority women who try to forge a stronger self from past trauma. The programme includes: Hafekasi follows a Tongan-Australian girl as she navigates her search of identity and belonging; Jie Jie paints a portrait of a Chinese family in the United States, exploring the tensions hidden beneath the banality of everyday life; Lykke Til focuses on the relationship and frictions between a Hong Kong woman and her homosexual partner in Norway; Santé highlights the sense of “otherness” felt by a Palestinian dancer at the border with Israel; and last, written and directed by two Lebanese artists living in Europe, Caterpillars attempts to comb through the colonial history of gender and labor.

Feature Film Programme: Evaporating Borders poetically weaves themes of migration, tolerance, identity and belonging in a sweeping visual essay by dissecting the experience of asylum seekers in Cyprus and unearthing the global restrictive attitudes toward migrating populations. It has been nominated in International Film Festival Rotterdam, SXSW Film Festival and ​Taiwan International Documentary Festival​.

Using animation and documentary as the narrative format, the films in Short Film Programme: Moving Home revolve around the personal experiences in the face of dispersion. The programme includes: Waking Up in Silence paints a portrait of Germany’s past and present through the eyes of young Ukrainian refugees, Abuelos documents a journey of family reunion at the US-Mexico border, 24^th ifva Open Category Gold Award Winner Family Family Day provides an intimate look at a family conflict in a Chinese family. Two animated films zoom in on the experiences of immigrants in France: Home of the Heart weaves a whimsical tale of an Iranian immigrant who lost his heart whereas The Garbage Man recalls the hard life of a Portuguese garbage collector, pieced together from his family’s memories.

 Closing Film Fremont is Iranian director Babak Jalali’s latest effort to bring the situation of ethnic minorities in the US to light. Set against the oldest Afghan community in the United States, first-time actor and real-life refugee Anaita Wali Zadae plays the immigrant protagonist, who struggles to put her life back in order after her previous stint as a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Actor Jeremy Allen White, known for his work in the TV dramas “Shameless” and “The Bear”, provides an important cameo towards the end. This film has been nominated in Sundance Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival and received Best Director Award, Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It will be screened with Blurry  to me, a short film produced by local ethnic minority youth.

Celebrate the Creativity of Ethnic Minority Youth with Video Showcase

ifva will present a midnight screening in collaboration with Japanese movie pamphlets shop Moviemarks, to showcase two short films produced by the participants of All About Us Young Filmmaker Mentoring Programme, which was launched in July. Two young EM filmmakers have been selected for the programme, they are Phirens Rai, alumnus of All About Us, who has produced Boju under the mentorship of Bipin Karma, up-and-coming director and actor in “Hand Rolled Cigarette”; and Japanese-Malaysian Chinese born Hiroka Mak, whose diary-style film Blurry  to me was created with the guidance of director Eric Tsang, to explore the complex shifts of identity and belonging.

First-ever Human Library and Retrospective Exhibition Share Local Living Experiences with Audience

Adding to the screening programme of All About Us Film Festival 2023, a series of free community programmes will invite people from all walks of life in the community to ponder on one’s unique values together. Two sessions of Human Library in workshop format, hosted by be/longing, a community arts-for-education lab that is concerned about Hong Kong’s ethnically-diverse communities, will allow participants to disengage any prejudice and conduct face-to-face exchange with ethnic minorities, immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, finding out their unique cultural traditions and life stories in the process.

Also organized for the first time, Drifting locally – Retrospective Exhibition of All About Us will lead audiences on a time journey to revisit the special moments of All About Us programme throughout the last 14 years. Along with students’ short films from the past editions, the exhibition will feature the voices, words and various objects that belong to the programme’s participants, mentors and staff, to share with audiences their experiences, reflections and thoughts on living in Hong Kong.

Two community screenings will be held to gather together movie lovers in the community, Short Screening : Out of the boxes explores the various possibilities of identities, cultures and narratives through the selected films, while Short Screening : Her Love/Hate Stories presents  stories of love and hate in a fantasy world where labels of race and gender do not exist.

Free community programme will take place at Kong Temporary Archive in Foo Tak Building, Wan Chai and Lemna of the Alchemist in Tsim Sha Tsui respectively.