What to see at the newly opened M+ Cinema in Hong Kong’s museum of visual culture
- The newly opened three-screen cinema is where M+ will show most of its moving image content, as well as new feature films and restored classics
- Themed programmes will tie in with exhibitions in the museum itself. ‘Now we are equipped to think about the moving image from all directions,’ curator says
The cinema will show new feature films, restored classics, experimental cinema, documentaries and more under different themes, which will change every three months. Supporting events will encourage dialogue between creators and audiences.
Two of the cinema’s three houses, one with 180 seats, another with 60 seats, open on June 8; a third, with 40 seats, will open later this year. Its three screens are where M+ will show most of its moving image content, but it will also show videos on the museum’s facade and Grand Stair, and offer films and videos for screening on demand in its Mediatheque.
What distinguishes the M+ Cinema from other cinemas in Hong Kong is its location in an art museum and its curatorial focus – M+ considers moving images to be a major aspect of modern and contemporary visual culture.
“Most cinemas are driven by, of course, the commercial logic, so they have to respond to the market and the demand that audiences might have. Then some others, like film archives, are very much [focused] on the historical materials, ” says Silke Schmickl, lead curator of moving image at M+. “What I think is special about us is that we have really this sort of diversity in terms of content and time frame.”