INTERVIEW: Documentary filmmaker re-lives the 2019 Hong Kong protests

A journalist who made a feature-length documentary using on-the-ground footage of the 2019 Hong Kong protests has spoken about the need to face up to the trauma of the months-long movement.

The protests, which began as an outpouring of anger over plans to allow the extradition of criminal suspects to face trial in mainland China, were a key milestone in Hong Kong’s transformation from one of the most free-wheeling cities in Asia to the restrictive semi-police state it is today.

The filmmaker, who gave only the nickname Alan for fear of reprisals, will screen his film “Rather be Ashes Than Dust” in Canada this month to mark the fifth anniversary of the protest movement this year.

Built from thousands of hours of handheld footage from Hong Kong’s streets, much of the action takes place amid pitched street battles between frontline protesters wielding umbrellas, bricks and Molotov cocktails confronting fully-equipped riot police with non-lethal bullets, water cannons and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of tear gas.

For Alan, editing his film involved reliving the chaos, terror and heartache of those months, as well as facing up to his own traumatized response.

“I knew all of the scenes inside out,” he told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview. “Every location, exactly what happened there — where shots were fired, where people were arrested, where blood was spilled.”

PTSD

Alan, who like many Hong Kongers has suffered with post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing so much violence and anguish on Hong Kong’s streets, had to take the edit slowly.

“There were some scenes where I really couldn’t stop crying,” he said. “I would cut for maybe one or two minutes, then I wouldn’t be able to carry on.”

Only some protesters took on police at the barricades, however. The film also portrays peaceful protesters in their thousands and millions coming out in support of the “Five Demands”: the withdrawal of amendments to extradition laws; fully democratic elections; an amnesty for all arrested protesters; accountability for police brutality and the withdrawal of the use of the word “rioters” to describe them.

While the extradition amendments were withdrawn after crowds of masked activists stormed the Legislative Council on July 1, 2019, the government continued to describe the protests as “riots” instigated by “hostile foreign forces,” and eventually quashed an independent report into police violence.

Tens of thousands of people were arrested and packed into overcrowded jails amid  reports of abuse in custody, while electoral rules were rewritten to ensure that only “patriotic” candidates loyal to the ruling Chinese Communist Party could stand.

Inner conflict

At times, Alan found that his role as a supposedly impartial observer was at odds with his desire to help those he was filming.

“One time, the police pinned down a couple,” he said of one incident, which happened as protesters occupied the Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok. “I was some distance away at the time, but I could see them going after people.”

“I really, really wanted to warn them to get out of there fast,” he said. “But I was a coward and kept quiet – I just kept on filming the whole thing.”

That decision haunts Alan to this day, leading him to feel that the film could encourage similar “soul-searching” in others.

“The couple got arrested in the end,” he said.

Later, he was to act as a witness for protesters who were being arrested.

“Everyone who got arrested started saying their names and ID card numbers in front of a video camera,” Alan said. “Because there were rumors going around that anyone who got arrested would likely just disappear, never to be heard of again.”

“So we recorded all of their images and their voices, as evidence,” he said.

Sold-out theaters

“Rather be Ashes Than Dust” has already been screened at film festivals in South Korea, New Zealand and Sweden.

At the Busan International Film Festival last October, it played to three sold-out theaters that were packed with young Koreans.

“Hong Kong’s government is actually quite similar to that of South Korea: there’s a lot of conflict and disputes,” he said. “That atmosphere was the reason why so many young South Koreans came to watch my film.”

Alan thinks his film, which is scheduled to screen in Toronto on Sept. 28 and 29, will encourage others to face up to Hong Kong’s recent history, even if the wounds are very far from healed.

“It’s been five years now, and regardless of how you see things, I think we have to face up to what happened with courage and fortitude, because it’s our history,” he said.

“Then, maybe we can reflect on it, maybe do some soul-searching, ask if we did the right thing, and if it was enough?”

Even from exile, the film has a role to play, he believes, adding: “The media should never abandon its duty to speak out on behalf of the powerless, the vulnerable and the oppressed.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.