3 film festival movies feature ‘black images and muted sound,’ after Hong Kong gov’t censors demand cuts
Hong Kong Free Press
Filmmakers who had movies shown at a local festival replaced censored scenes with “black images and muted sound,” according to organisers, after government censors demanded certain scenes be cut.
Three films that were shown at the Fresh Wave International Film Festival faced orders from the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (OFNAA) to delete several sections, according to the statement issued last Friday evening.
“The filmmakers of these shorts [have] chosen to replace the deleted parts with black images and muted sound,” the statement read ahead of the screenings. “As a result, there will be a considerable length of such conditions during the screenings. This is NOT a technical error.”
When asked which scenes were deemed problematic, a festival spokesperson told HKFP on Monday that “the result and content of the censorship are confidential documents between Fresh Wave and OFNAA and cannot be made public.”
They added that three films were affected – each of them involve protagonists grappling with the past and appear to reference the 2019 pro-democracy protests and unrest. My Pen is Blue is a melancholic time travel story; Please Hold On follows two people navigating the past by phone calls; whilst The Reticent Wave follows the struggles of a woman experiencing grief and solidarity as she opts to remain in Hong Kong.
Movies shown locally must be issued with a certificate of classification by OFNAA before they can be screened. HKFP has contacted OFNAA for comment.
Film censorship
The 17th edition of the festival kicked off last Friday and will continue until July 2.
In 2021, the 15th edition of the festival axed screenings of Far From Home, a short film about the 2019 protests, after the OFNAA failed to issue a certification or any notice of refusal ahead of the screenings.
A year later, in 2022, screenings of Anatomy of Rats and Time, and Time Again were cancelled, after OFNAA also failed to approve the screenings, or refused a rating.
At the 2022 ifva All About Us Film Festival, scenes of migrant workers rallying in front of Taiwan’s Presidential Office Building were ordered to be removed by OFNAA from the Taiwanese documentary The Lucky Woman.
The Legislative Council passed amendments to the Film Censorship Ordinance in 2021, allowing the government to ban films deemed contrary to national security. Any person who exhibits an unauthorised film could face up to three years in jail and a HK$1 million fine.
In June 2020, Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution – bypassing the local legislature – following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, which were broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers, alarming democrats, civil society groups and trade partners, as such laws have been used broadly to silence and punish dissidents in China. However, the authorities say it has restored stability and peace to the city.
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