Award-winning Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung’s documentary ‘To My Nineteen-year-old Self’ pulled from cinemas after complaints over public screening
- The 136-minute documentary by award-winning Mabel Cheung follows six students from Ying Wa Girls’ School over a decade
- One student has accused Ying Wa and Cheung of placing what was originally promised as an internal project on public screens without her consent
A documentary by award-winning Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung Yuen-ting that tracked the growth of six girls for 10 years will be pulled from Monday, amid a brewing controversy after some of those featured in the film claimed their consent was not sought for public screening.
Cheung on Sunday said she would suspend the public screening of To My Nineteen-year-old Self, while offering her apology to Ying Wa Girls’ School which commissioned the project, the pupils featured in the documentary and those who contributed to the production during the 10 years.
“I have discussed it with the school and we agreed that we should deal with these issues as we think people are more important than the film itself,” Cheung said, addressing a Post reporter’s question after a screening in Whampoa on Sunday.
“We wish to have space and the time to sit down and discuss it with the girls and the relevant parties.”
The row erupted after “Ah Ling”, one of the students who featured heavily in the documentary, wrote to Ming Pao Weekly and complained that it would be screened publicly without her consent.
Olympic medal-winning cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze also complained the film included footage of an interview Cheung did with her in 2016, saying she had never agreed the footage could be incorporated in the documentary for commercial screening.