Expo to focus on 3D films, documentaries
New events focusing on developing documentary and 3D filmmaking will be the highlight of this year's Filmart, but industry insiders say there is a long way to go before the making of such films takes off in Hong Kong.
Filmart's organiser, the Trade Development Council, says it will launch the Asian Side of the Doc, a three-day programme of workshops, screenings, pitching sessions and networking events for documentary filmmakers.
The event, sponsored by the European Union's Media International, is expected to attract more than 150 TV, film and new media executives from Europe, North America and Asia.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday for Entertainment Expo, Raymond Yip Chak-yan, the council's assistant chief, said the three-day programme was based on the French TV documentary trade event Sunny Side of the DOC, and hoped the Hong Kong event would promote the trade in Asia.
Yip said a 3D film summit featuring a series of seminars and workshops would also be staged during Filmart, running between March 22 and 25 at the Convention and Exhibition Centre. It was worth focusing on 3D films, he said, because they were the latest trend and Hong Kong already had the technology and people working in this area.
Documentary filmmaker Tammy Cheung Hung welcomed the launch of the Asian Side of the Doc, saying it was a positive move. But she said there might not be enough locally produced documentaries to trade given that documentary filmmaking was not that popular in Hong Kong. More needed to be done to promote documentary filmmaking, she added.
Although the Film Development Council earlier said that it hoped to make Hong Kong a hub for 3D films, council vice-chairman Peter Lam Kin-ngok said developing Hong Kong's 3D sector would take time as only 30 per cent of the city's screens were equipped to show such films, not enough to attract investors, he said.
Lam said Beijing had subsidised the installation of digital screens on the mainland to help the development of the 3D film sector but no such initiative had been seen in Hong Kong.
Filmart and eight other events, including the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Hong Kong Film Awards, will take place during Entertainment Expo, which runs between March 22 and April 18.
