Hot Docs 2022: BLUE ISLAND Trailer, Where Did Hong Kong Go?

I know a few people in Hong Kong who are wrestling with this question right now: Should I stay or should I go?

Director Chan Tze Woon's film Blue Island has just won the 2022 Best International Feature Documentary Award at this year's recently concluded Hot Docs Documentary Festival. It's described by the festival in the following words:

"An elegiac corollary to the fiery documentaries that captured Hong Kong's recent protest movement and ensuing crackdown, Chan Tze Woon's Blue Island looks at the state of the region in the wake of the 2020 national security law, an era where many pro-democracy protestors have either fled into exile or are sitting in custody.

"Explicitly hybrid in its approach, the film not only blurs narrative and documentary, but also the years of 2019 to 2021 with a longer history of Hong Kong as a site of refuge, particularly the stories of those who fled the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen. Alongside interviews and observational footage, the film incorporates staged sequences in which the protest leaders of today are cast in the roles of student leaders from 1989 and earlier, foregrounding and rupturing its artificiality.

"Timely and resonant, Blue Island grapples honestly with the fact that, despite valiant efforts, Hong Kong as we once knew it is no more."

Sobering words indeed, even for those of us who have only visited Hong Kong or watched it as a background in hundreds of films. Its history, heritage and, especially, its vibrant cinema have long served as touchstones for many of us who write for the site. The documentary offers much food for thought.

Icarus Films represents the film's distribution rights across all markets in the U.S. and Canada. Blue Island made its U.S. premiere at the New Directors/New Films 2022, and will make its West Coast premiere at CAAMfest 2022, followed by venues worldwide. It will screen May 15, 2022 at the Great Star Theatre, Chinatown, San Francisco, California.

Watch the trailer below. Visit the official site for more information.