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Hong Kong Eco Film Festival has a powerful message – how you can help the planet

The second edition of the event will tackle subjects from fast fashion to endangered species, as well as panel discussions and workshops

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Cynthia Chow, founder of the Hong Kong Eco Film Festival. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Film is a powerful platform for spreading a message. And the environmental messages of this year’s Hong Kong Eco Film Festival (HKEFF) might be difficult for some viewers to digest.

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“We will address serious issues but I don’t want people to get depressed and leave screenings feeling the planet is all doom and gloom,” says HKEFF founder Cynthia Chow Ci-wan. “To alleviate any eco-anxiety the films might trigger, audience members can attend related talks and workshops to learn more about the issues addressed and ways in which they can help.”

The festival, which will be held at the Asia Society, in Admiralty, from November 15 to 17, is designed to provide directors with a platform because, as Chow explains, “Many films in our programme won’t get a general release, which is a shame because a lot of work goes into these projects – film­makers spend a lot of time in difficult conditions in the wild.”

The festival is divided into four themes: “biodiversity”; “ocean”; “sustain­ability”; and “inventing tomorrow”. Featured films include Diedie Weng’s 2016 documentary, The Beekeeper and His Son, followed by a Q&A with local beekeeper Arthur Au, and Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral (2017), which focuses the lens on a team of divers, scientists and photographers documenting the disap­pearance of coral reefs.

Also showing are local documentaries Breathing Room (2018), about the endangered Chinese white dolphin, and The Loop , a recent release that follows a couple’s six-day coasteer­ing adventure around Hong Kong Island to raise awareness about marine pollution. A Q&A with The Loop’s director, Mike Sakas, will be held after the screening.

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