Film Stylo offers a creative outlet – and a human connection – during the pandemic
Hong Kong filmmaker Jeremy Hung invites students to document their experiences of the pandemic, providing a creative outlet and a platform for connection
Hongkonger Jeremy Hung Hei-chun hopes his project, Film Stylo, can provide an escape.
Launched amid the pandemic, Film Stylo allows secondary students worldwide to document through short films the effects Covid-19 is having on their lives, providing not just a creative outlet for those stuck at home but also a platform to share emotions.
We meet at a cafe in Tsim Sha Tsui, where Hung orders a cool drink. “It’s too hot for coffee,” he says. A few days earlier he finished two weeks of self-isolation after returning from the United States, he tells me.
In January, he had started his art residency at Yale University, having received a fellowship from the Yale-China Association supported by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York. In March, the New Haven, Connecticut-based university closed due to the pandemic. But rather than focusing on the negative, Hung saw an opportunity.
“The pandemic has changed circumstances and given my fellowship project a new sense of purpose,” he says. Fostering emotional wellness and intercultural empathy through filmmaking are now key elements. And it has received support from those working in health at the university.