China’s Documentary Film Production Is on the Increase

Hong Kong filmmaker Chan Tze-woon recently returned from a fruitful trip to the Busan Intl. Film Festival. The 31-year-old’s new project, “Blue Island,” was selected to take part in the Asian Cinema Fund during the festival, where he met producers from South Korea and the U.S. and film fest directors who might be interested in the project, a documentary.

“Blue Island” is a trip down memory lane of Hong Kong through the stories of three men and an account of how their experiences of historical events, including the 1967 riots, the Cultural Revolution in mainland China and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, have shaped their destinies. Chan’s project was awarded $5,000 under the fund’s Asian Network of Documentary Fund.

It was another milestone for the young filmmaker, whose “Yellowing” (2016), a documentary about Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement, won the New Asian Currents Ogawa Shinsuke Prize at the 15th Yamagata Intl. Documentary Film Festival in Japan last year. It was also nominated for best doc at the 53rd Golden Horse Film Festival in 2016.

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