Roger Garcia
When Roger Garcia took over the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society in 2010, he was already an established film producer, critic and writer in Asia and internationally. With the HKIFF and the Asian Film Awards (AFA) both underway in less than a month, he sits down with Sean Hebert to discuss the evolution and new realities of filmmaking in Hong Kong.
We are living in this global world and it’s important for 21st century filmmakers to have an international outlook—to make films in other countries like the United States or in Europe. This is not inconceivable. It happened in the 20th century with, say, John Woo, who had a successful career in Hong Kong and then moved to Hollywood and had a successful career there, and then with some of the skills and experience of all of that, went to China and made “Red Cliff”— a huge budget and special effects movie.
The film industry in Hong Kong actually declined in the 1990s. In the so-called “Golden Era,” the markets were mainly Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the traditional Chinese diaspora of southeast Asia. And some market in Japan, but mainly for Jackie Chan and Michael Hui films. Today, it’s more difficult to have standalone financing in Hong Kong. The market here is not big enough.
One naturally looks across the Chinese border to the markets there. In Guangdong province, there are about 100 million people, compared to the seven million people we have here. So that’s a huge market, which means you can put more money into the movie you’re making if there is a co-production because then the film can be released in Guangdong.
I think in the early 21st century, Hong Kong filmmakers were then beginning to look more seriously at co-production with China, which took some working out. The Hong Kong government signed this Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which allowed local films not to be counted under the quota system in mainland China, so they could have access to the growing China market.
I think there is a difference in taste [between Hong Kong and Chinese audiences], but I don’t know what it is and no one has actually told me what it is. I think that Hong Kong filmmakers are versatile people. I think that it’s probably hard to make a film specifically for a Hong Kong audience and have it distributed really successfully in China because of the difference in taste.
There is a mature and quite sophisticated audience here. What we mustn’t do is devalue Hong Kong movies. I feel sometimes people say, “oh, you’re not making films in Hong Kong anymore—you’re all moving to China,” but that’s quite demoralizing for a young filmmaker. Of course we’re making movies in Hong Kong!