Hong Kong, from angst to hope to agony – 30 years of filmmaking by Evans Chan
- ‘We Have Boots shows Hong Kong in collective depression, just like the post-Tiananmen moment in 1989,’ says documentary-film maker Evans Chan
- In between, he captured the hopes of Hongkongers in 1997. Now he’s doubtful his latest film will be seen in Hong Kong, and if he can finish a protest trilogy
The filmmaking career of Evans Chan has come full circle. In 1992 his first film, To Liv(e) – about the angst of Hong Kong people uncertain of their future after the June 4, 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy students in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square – had its international premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
In January this year, Chan’s latest film, We Have Boots – which documents the political upheaval in Hong Kong from 2014 to 2019 – also had its world premiere at the Dutch film festival. Chan says the people of Hong Kong are mired in agony just as they were 30 years ago.
“We Have Boots shows Hong Kong in collective depression, just like the post-Tiananmen moment in 1989. That happened when I was a young man, in my twenties. And now, three decades later, we are still in agony,” he laments. “Caught in the rivalry between China, the UK and the United States, Hong Kong always needs to negotiate that narrow space to survive those complex power plays.”
“Since 2015, there have been several movies about Hong Kong’s democracy movement, such as Yellowing (2016), Lost in the Fumes (2017), as well as my own Raise the Umbrellas (2016). While they can be screened in Taiwan and Japan, no European or American film festivals are willing to touch them.