Be Water: Civil Disobedience and the Fight for Democracy in Hong Kong
2020
A curatorial collaboration with Alex Yong Kang Chow, former Hong Kong student activist sentenced to prison for seven months for his political participation in the 2014 Umbrella Movement and current UC Berkeley Geography Phd student, this program brings together films, performance, and discussion that prioritize the lived experience of protesters. Stuck between its British colonial past and a future ruled by communist China, Hong Kong’s young people are taking to the streets to fight for the autonomy and democracy they were promised. Attitudes to resistance, protest strategy, and tactics differ between generations and the leaderless demonstrators themselves. How do they manage the nuances of building a democratic movement? How are they using creative strategies in the arts, technology, and in the streets, as crucial communication tactics?
Poetry reading by The Bauhinia Project, anonymous poets that bring Hong Kong’s struggles to the stage of transnational activism through lyric and language. Their work renders the testimonies of protesters and ordinary people in Hong Kong–some submitted to an encrypted email and others drawn from “found poem” materials–into English-language poems.
Panelists
Jeffrey Hou
Professor and Director of Urban Commons Lab at the University of Washington, Seattle
Poets/Activists from the Bauhinia Project
Conversations with the Courageous (CwC)
Alex Yong Kang Chow
Hong Kong Action Association of Berkeley
Brian Ng
Lausan Collective
Films
Age of the Valiant
Hong Kong | 2020 | 11 mins. | Directed by Lo Chun-yip, Willis Ho Kit Wang
Two valiant youngsters take to the street for the freedom and future of Hong Kong, even it would cause them 10 years in jail.
Old Running Men
Hong Kong | 2020 | 11 mins. | Directed by Willis Ho Kit Wang
Grandpa Chan, 73 and Grandpa Wong, 82, run into the mist of teargas and try to protect the young protesters from any harm. With all the dangers and hardships they have been through, to them retreat is never an option.
Migrant Down the Rabbit Hole
Hong Kong | 2020 | 16 mins. | Directed by Lee Wai Kwan, Yip Man Hay
Maid Arista, an Indonesian woman in HongKong, falls into a rabbit hole and finds herself reporting the anti-extradition movement every Sunday. Stories of protestors recall the memories of her lost hope.
Mong Kok First Aid 成年禮
Hong Kong, USA | Cantonese, English Subtitled | 2019 | 20 mins. | Directed by Mavis Siu
Mong Kok First Aid 成年禮 investigates the experiences and unheard stories of a group of young volunteers who provided First Aid services to wounded participants during Hong Kong’s landmark Umbrella Movement of 2014. Just half a decade later, their first-person narratives reveal an intense feeling of time passing and memories fading, as this documentary seeks to challenge history by intervening to supplement the record. After all, who decides whose story can be a part of history?
Partners
