Peter Chan (b. 1962, Hong Kong) studied film in Los Angeles. Early in his career, he was known for directing romantic comedies such as Alan & Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye (1991) and Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996), which won nine awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. In 2000, he established a production company with focus to produce Pan-Asian movies. In 2002, he collaborated as director and producer with South Korea’s Kim Jee-woon and Thailand’s Nonzee Nimibutr in the making of the segment of anthology film Three in Three:Going Home. In 2005, Perhaps Love marked his first foray into Mainland-Hong Kong co-production, followed by The Warlords (2007), American Dreams in China (2013), and Leap (2020).

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster | 2001 | Digital | English subtitles | 10 min. 30 sec.

In 2001, French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster created the 35mm film Central, which unfolds at the Star Ferry terminal in the titular area of Hong Kong. The work opens with an unnamed narrator waiting for her brother to arrive. The siblings’ relationship seems fraught, and the meeting is fated to be a disappointment. From various vantage points, the woman’s voiceover observes and speculates on the people and environments she sees, while the camera cuts between views, or pans to follow movement. ‘Are all people bound together?’, the narrator wonders. In reflecting on the links and fissures between individuals, Central conveys an impression of Hong Kong that is both familiar and alienating.

About the Director

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (b.1965, France) is an influential figure of international contemporary art. She lives and works in Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Gonzalez-Foerster began her career primarily with short and minimalistic films that explored contemporary urban life with reassembled fragments from her own travels. Her cross-disciplinary practice encompasses installation, film, video, and various forms of often relational, collaborative work. Her works have been collected by public institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the 21st Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa.

Lee Kwok-wai | 2016 | Digital | 7 min.

An overworked soul, looking for a home, boards a bus to visit old memories and circles around a building in search of forgotten answers. Lee uses miniature models and computer graphics to create this animation, sharing his memories of a home with the audience. Combining reality and imagination, he turns a seven-storey resettlement block built on squatter land destroyed by a fire in the 1950s into a fabled urban space. The thought-provoking work quantifies the process whereby a flat—in a city of blazing lights—transforms into a home.

About the Director

Lee Kwok-wai (b. Hong Kong) is an animator and director. In 2009, Lee was awarded Hong Kong ICT Award and TBS Digicon6 Award by Time To Say Good-bye (2009). In 2013, he established Nine Monkeys Workshop (NMW) and has worked closely with comic artist Kongkee. Together, they have produced renowned animations, including Howl the Mobile Fatty (2012), Saveur Terebenthine (2014), and Crazy Pandaman (2015). Resetttlement Memory (2017) received the Gold Award for Animations from ifva.