The nine films brought together in this programme focus on the body as a site of desire, violence, and emancipation. Its physicality on screen is rendered palpable through solitary performances in the private and public realm which are challenged by intrusive external forces, including the voyeuristic gaze of the viewer, that question agency and autonomy in the face of society. The body that we own and govern exists in a constant field of tension between intimacy and estrangement, proximity and distance, external and self-perception.

Ellen Pau’s Glove (The Pleasure of the Glove) offers an impressionistic interpretation of touch through the mysterious presence of a surgical glove. In Jiang Zhi’s Fly Fly a hand flies through the interior of a cramped apartment suggesting that freedom can be achieved through imagination and the transgression of physical reality. Mona Hatoum’s Measures of Distance ponders on the effect of distance through the reading of an epistolary exchange between a mother and daughter. Yoko Ono’s legendary Cut Piece shows the artist sitting on a stage with men cutting pieces from her clothes, slowly unveiling her fragile yet resilient and confident naked body. Melati Suryodarmo’s Butter Dance powerfully depicts resilience through the artist's dance on a piece of butter, falling and rising, persistently pursuing her performance. In Xu Zhen’s Rainbow we witness the violent slapping of a naked torso solely evoked through sound and an increasing accumulation of welts. Nalini Malani’s Penelope pays homage to the Greek queen’s cyclical weaving ruse by animating multi-limbed creatures and eyes projected on her that she fends off. Fountain alludes to the Greek mythological figure of Narcissus, depicting artist Patty Chang performing in front of a mirror to reflect on female self-representation and -perception. Ellen Pau’s Blue depicts video-processed images of wars and a woman dancing in front of her own shadow to evoke emotional trauma throughout history.

Fearless & Fierce: The Female Gaze presents nine moving image works from the 1970s to the present day by artists and filmmakers who address the dilemma, struggle, and ever-changing situation of women in Asia. The programme opens with Fion Ng’s Geu Nu Gei and Cao Yu’s I Have, both of which satirise the stereotypes of women’s role within patriarchal societies. Nguyen Trinh Thi’s Eleven Men wittily offers a fresh perspective through the monologue of a woman who recounts eleven love stories set to found footage scenes of male characters of famous state-produced Vietnamese classics, featuring the same central actress Như Quỳnh. Mother by Tracy Moffatt weaves together scenes from films and TV dramas that describe convoluted relationships between mothers and their children throughout film history. Mako Idemitsu’s Kiyoko's Situation, Rajendra Gour’s Labour of Love — The Housewife, and Mary Stephen’s A Very Easy Death delve into the programme’s theme by contrasting the culturally defined role of mothers and the freewill of women in contemporary life. Ruby Yang’s Mirror Points and Han Ok-hee's Untitled 77-A powerfully illustrate how inner turmoil, self-awakening, and emancipation can be expressed in both the private and public sphere from a female perspective.

This screening celebrates the transformative power of friendship and collaboration in art and filmmaking circles. Through a selection of four short films spanning more than five decades, the programme explores the creative connections that arise from trusted friendships and from across different artistic disciplines. As art and life become one and the same, these candid films illustrate the life-giving sustenance of creativity and human connection.

A collaboration between video artist Nam June Paik, filmmaker Charles Atlas, visual artist Shigeko Kubota, and dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, Merce by Merce by Paik Part One: Blue Studio: Five Segments epitomises Atlas and Cunningham’s ‘media dance’ experiments, where the camera becomes an active part of the choreography and the audience’s experience alongside the dancers themselves. Created for New York public television, the work sees Cunningham dance together with his own multiplied image, responding to a dense electronic score by Paik.

Modern Poetry Exhibition is a silent black-and-white video by experimental photographer and filmmaker Chang Chao Tang, documenting the work of his artist friends Huang Hua-cheng, Long Sih-liang, and Huang Yong-song, each of whom transformed their favourite modernist poem into an art installation. The controversial exhibition, which pushed a new wave of modernism during Taiwan’s conservative martial law period, was shut down in two Taipei venues and ultimately ended up in a field.

Antonio Mak Hin Yeung, one of Hong Kong's prominent contemporary artists, challenged the art establishment and played a pivotal role in establishing an alternative art scene during the 1980s. Known for his figurative cast-bronze sculptures that explored the socio-political climate of colonial Hong Kong, Mak is captured in his home studio in the intimate three-part film Private Antonio, directed by Neco Lo Che Ying, a close friend of Mak’s and a pioneer of animation in Hong Kong.

Founded in 2020, 楔Xiē (‘Wedge’) is an artist collective that grew out of fragmented online conversations about social issues and global political events. The collective comprises four friends: Hao Jingban, Shen Xin, Yunyu ‘Ayo’ Shih, and Qu Chang. Their video What Makes a Home? was made in Berlin, Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Minnesota, and New York during the COVID-19 pandemic and meditates on the importance of the home in times of enforced isolation.

The screening will be accompanied by a free talk between Neco Lo Che Ying and M+ Curator-at-large of Hong Kong Film and Media, Li Cheuk-to, in the Festival Lounge on Friday 31 May at 16:00. The talk will be conducted in Cantonese.