Generations of Hong Kong filmmakers have used moving images to express their thoughts and feelings about the times. This screening brings together four films recently acquired by M+ for its Asian Avant-Garde Film Circulation Library, which preserves and promotes Asian experimental film and video art from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Directed by Sek Kei and produced by and starring John Woo, 1969’s Dead Knot explores youthful angst and restlessness through the complex, intertwined relationships of two men and a woman. Similarly, both films directed by Law Kar, made in the aftermath of the 1967 riots, capture the spirit of the time: Routine unfolds like an uninterrupted long take, and depicts a taxi ride from Tsim Sha Tsui Pier to the office of the Chinese Student Weekly in Kowloon Tong. And Begging features Paul Su, the activist known for protesting the fare increase of the Star Ferry, in a striking portrayal of a homeless man. His contemporary plight is interspersed with the ancient wisdom of verses from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching.

May Fung's 1989 film Thought IV: The Edge of the World is a collage that responds to the ever-changing world beyond Hong Kong. It features highway shots that recall the exterior views from the taxi in Routine, war reportage, and images of coastal landscapes and stretching bodies. The film represents another generation's aesthetics of self-expression.

In a post-screening discussion, the three independent filmmakers will delve into the contrasting creative environments that have shaped their work, as well as the evolution of local film culture. This conversation will be moderated by M+ Curator-at-large of Hong Kong Film and Media Li Cheuk-to. This talk will be held in Cantonese with simultaneous interpretation in English.

Sek Kei (b. 1946, Macau) is the pen name of Wong Chi-keung, a renowned Hong Kong film critic. Active since 1964, he wrote a daily film column starting in 1971 that continued for more than four decades. Sek was honoured with the Professional Achievement Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2023. He belonged to the first generation of Hong Kong experimental filmmakers gathered around the College Cine Club, including Law Kar, Chiu Tak-hak, Kam Ping-hing, and John Woo. Short films as director include The Job (1968), Strife (1968), and Dead Knot (1969).

Law Kar (b. 1940, Macau) is the pen name of Lau Yiu-kuen, an esteemed film critic, programmer, film researcher, and scholar. He was the editor-in-chief of the film page of Chinese Student Weekly in the 1960s and cofounded the Hong Kong Film Culture Centre in 1978. Law made the experimental films Accident (1966), Destiny (1966, unfinished), Shadow (1968), Routine (1968), Begging (1970) and Demonstrations in Support of the Defence of Diaoyu Islands in Hong Kong (as co-director, 1971). He received the Professional Achievement Award along with Sek Kei at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2023, and produced an autobiographical documentary, Cinema Strada, in 2024.

May Fung’s (b. 1952, Hong Kong) films and videos are characterised by explorations of identity, memory, gender, geopolitics, urbanism, and history. Her works often incorporate both personal and collective histories, reflecting her experiences within the broader sociocultural contexts of Hong Kong and the world. Her many contributions to vitally important Hong Kong organisations include membership in film collective, the Phoenix Cine Club in the late 1970s and co-founding Videotage, a collective and archive that supports experimental video and new media work, in 1986. In addition to her artistic endeavours, she is an active cultural practitioner, art educator, critic, and curator.