Three titles at Hong Kong’s Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival have reportedly been censored following decrees by the city’s authorities.
The films were not pulled from the lineup but do feature blacked out sections and muted sound during scenes deemed problematic by Hong Kong’s Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (OFNAA).
The city amended regulations in 2021 to censor any film that poses a threat to national security.
The festival did not formally identify titles or share details of the cut scenes but they are understood to comprise Siu Chi-yan’s My Pen Is Blue, Chan Ka-man’s Please Hold On and Yuen Chi-him’s The Reticent Wave. Each includes characters that struggle with the past and appear to reference the 2019 pro-democracy social movement.
My Pen Is Blue was one of the festival’s opening films on June 9 and featured up to nine minutes of blacked out scenes during the film’s 23-minute duration, equating to nearly 40% of the short, according to local reports.
In a statement released on June 10, festival organisers said: “Parts of a number of titles were decreed by OFNAA to be deleted. The filmmakers of these shorts [have] chosen to replace the deleted parts with black images and muted sound. As a result, there will be a considerable length of such conditions during the screenings. This is NOT a technical error. Please kindly remain patient. We appreciate your understanding.”
The festival, founded by Hong Kong auteur Johnnie To and supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, faced similar issues last year. Fresh Wave cancelled public screenings of Wu Zi-en’s Islander, Tino Wu and Antonio Tam’s Anatomy Of Rats, and Asgard Wong’s Time, And Time Again when they failed to secure a certificate of approval or a notice of refusal to approve from OFNAA ahead of the festival.
However, To struck a note of optimism ahead of this year’s edition and said: “After years of intensive cultivation, the younger generation has gradually become the new driving force of the industry. Fresh Wave hopes to continue helping them realise their dreams through actual practice so that these dreams will lead them towards greater achievements in the future.”
The 17th edition of the festival is set to run from June 9 to July 2.
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