粉筆少女 The infamous Chalk Girl

This is NOT my documentary but I really enjoyed the newly released Guardian documentary “The Infamous Chalk Girl” by San San F Young (web, @ssfyoung) (Producer, Camera, Director) so I want to share it here. Have a watch!

The Infamous Chalk Girl

P.S. My favourite scene is at the 20:45 mark and I left this comment: “This is a very touching scene to me. Chalk girl was asked what would she draw now?“

Hobbyhorse Revolution – North American premiere at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival

Hobbyhorse Revolution sounds like an interesting film and I hope to watch it soon. CBC Radio show As It Happens has a 22 minutes story on this documentary as it is having its North American premiere at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival (two more screenings on May 4th and May 6th, 2017).

Hobbyhorse Revolution (Official trailer)

Hobbyhorse Revolution (Official trailer #2)

Here is the info from Hot Docs,

“Once the plaything of children, the hobbyhorse—a stick with a horse’s head—takes on greater importance and symbolism for a group of Finnish teens who organize flash mobs and post videos dedicated to the object of their devotion. The (mostly) girls who practise competitive hobbyhorse dressage and show jumping are not horsing around. With backs straight, shoulders square, knees up and toes pointed, these fantasy athletes are part of an underground scene and sport that’s taking hold of a new generation of riders—who also happen to be the ride. With a punk rock attitude, these hobbyhorse rebels use make believe and social media to challenge what’s considered age-appropriate or different. Bullies be damned. Hobbyhorse Revolution catches a trend in its infancy along with the imaginative and brave pioneers who refuse to be categorized or kept down for being true to themselves and their passion. Angie Driscoll“

As a bonus, here is a video of “Making a hobbyhorse”

There is definitely beauty in the movements reminding me of feet of ballet dancers.

“LET US HOLD EACH OTHER” from windna’s YouTube channel.

“past comes back to life”

Wukan (烏坎村): China’s Democracy Experiment – great documentary

A documentary about the Wukan Village’s (烏坎村) Democracy Experiment that happened after the protests is a film that I wish I had the guts, access, ability, and talent to make. Have a watch of the full six-part series playlist on Youtube (more info on Aljazeera) or you can click the episodes below. Also check out Lianain Films’ James and Lynn Facebook and website.

Wukan: China’s Democracy Experiment – Episode 1

Wukan: China’s Democracy Experiment – Episode 2

Wukan: China’s Democracy Experiment – Episode 3

Wukan: China’s Democracy Experiment – Episode 4

Wukan: China’s Democracy Experiment – Episode 5

Wukan: China’s Democracy Experiment – Episode 6

Werner Herzog and Errol Morris videos

I posted this collections of videos on this post, “Two great friends and documentarians – Werner Herzog and Errol Morris” Here are two more videos.

An Evening with Werner Herzog – posted Sep 30, 2010 by University of California Television (UCTV)

Wings of Hope (2000) Quoting Wikipedia, “In 1971, while Herzog was location scouting for Aguirre, the Wrath of God in Peru, he narrowly avoided taking LANSA Flight 508. Herzog’s reservation was cancelled due to a last-minute change in itinerary. The plane was later struck by lightning and disintegrated, but one survivor lived after a free fall. Long haunted by the event, nearly 30 years later he made a documentary film Wings of Hope (2000) about it, which explored the story of the sole survivor Juliane Koepcke.”

Watch “Revolution Trilogy” 睇「革命三部曲」

Director/producer/independent reporter Kempton Lam has made three full-length documentaries from 2004 – 2015. (Cantonese with English subtitles 廣東話、英文字幕) Collectively, the three documentaries are known as his “Revolution Trilogy” 「革命三部曲」. Kempton’s debut documentary Long Hair Revolution 「長毛革命」 has been collected by the Canadian National Archive since 2009. You can watch the three films at this YouTube Playlist (projected on your big screen HD TV or on your computer here). Enjoy!

Long Hair Revolution 「長毛革命」 (full-length 2005) (read film & Canadian national archive info)

HKtv Revolution 「香港電視革命」 (full-length 2015) (read Director’s Statement)

Umbrella Revolution: History as Mirror Reflection 「雨傘革命實錄：以史為鏡」 (full-length 2015) (read Director’s Statement)

Watch HKtv Revolution

Watch my new documentary HKtv Revolution 香港電視革命 (with English & Chinese subtitles) in this stranger than fiction time. Love to hear your feedback. (note: you can use Chromecast or Apple TV to watch this on your HDTV)

在這個比小說更離奇更荒謬的世代，請讓我分享紀錄片「香港電視革命」(中英文字幕)。請留言，寫下您寶貴的意見。(注意：您可以使用Chromecast或Apple TV 放上您的高清電視觀看)

HKtv Revolution 香港電視革命 (full-length 2015)

1) Watch HKtv Revolution 香港電視革命 in a “stranger than fiction” time

As our real world is often stranger than fiction, you are invited to watch HKtv Revolution 香港電視革命 to witness and reflect what HongKongers had gone through in the last few years in fighting with the CY Leung Hong Kong SAR government for their simple “rights” to watch some good TV shows.

Why March 2016 is especially “stranger than fiction”? When HKTV’s license application was first rejected in 2013, as you will learn in the start of the film, the CY Leung government claimed it worried about “cut throat competition” might lead to lower programming quality. Well, after watching the slow sinking of ATV (the one of only two free-to-air TV broadcasters in HK) in 2015/2016, we now have positive proof how ridiculous that “cut throat competition” claim was!

In recent months, ATV had trouble paying salaries of its hundreds of employees, still own many employees millions in wages, hadn’t been paying its broadcast license fees to the government for months, and couldn’t even pay the service/maintenance fees for its elevators (so ATV employees had to walk up the stairs to work), etc. And ATV’s liquidator accounting firm Deloitte finally announced on Thursday (March 3rd) evening that it will dismiss almost all ATV employees!

And after Deloitte’s announcement, ATV investor came out to flaunt a case of ‘cash’ at press conference in last-ditch attempt to save ATV (see news #2 below). The cash flaunting event later became even more of a farce as news media spotted (news #5 and #7 below) that the stacks of HK$ 1,000 bank notes were propped up by empty boxes and HK$ 100 notes to give an appearance of a fuller box of HK$ 1,000 bills!

As ATV shuts its broadcasting down in the coming days, after close to 59 years of continuous operation, I hope you will enjoy and gain some insight watching HKtv Revolution 香港電視革命 in our turbulent and “stranger than fiction” time.

2) Review HKtv Revolution 香港電視革命 on IMDb

Please (pretty please) rate & review the film at IMDb, it is easy and it helps spread the words of the film.

I hope you enjoy the film (on your big screen HDTV or your computer) as much as I in making it. Feel free to post any questions you may have re HKtv Revolution 香港電視革命. And I definitely appreciate your time in leaving me any words of encouragement.

My best,
Kempton

Director of “Revolution Trilogy” (革命三部曲)
2005 Long Hair Revolution 長毛革命 (watch online)
2015 HKtv Revolution 香港電視革命 (watch online)
2015 Umbrella Revolution: History as Mirror Reflection 雨傘革命實錄：以史為鏡

Opening Windows and Doors

Database search of Long Hair Revolution at Library and Archives Canada=

It will always be one of my great honours to have my first documentary in 2005 “Long Hair Revolution (長毛革命)” be placed and collected by the National Archive of Canada (Government of Canada Item Number (ISN) 416953 at Library and Archives Canada). At the same time, as an independent filmmaker with limited resource, I’ve tried, shamelessly, to leverage this honour help me open many windows and doors in my documentary making journey.

I often mention”Long Hair Revolution (長毛革命)” and sometimes the National Archive connection (like today) when  arranging face-to-face or Skype video interviews, requesting copyright owners’ permissions to use their works (photos, artworks, video clips, etc) to help give myself instant “credibility” and hopefully smooth things out. Opening these windows and doors are crucial to my ability to try to make (HKtv+Umbrella)Revolution (香港電視+雨傘)革命 a reasonably “good” documentary since part 2 my documentaries (namely the “Umbrella Revolution” part) is heavily (or almost totally) “crowd sourced”.

P.S. To my friends and supporters: Yes, I am trying to fix the giant 10 years gap between my first documentary and my second film! I guess which is why I am making my 2nd and 3rd film together! Will see what happen.