Directed by CHAN Tze Woon • Documentary • 2022 • 98 minutes
BLUE ISLAND documents three people who engaged in rebellions when they were young. Through reconstructing these events, the film dramatizes their scarred memories and experiences by using four young people who participated in the 2019 Anti-extradition Law Amendment Movement in Hong Kong. These real protagonists are separated by time and history, yet their lives parallel and overlap, because they have similarly defiant backgrounds and find themselves the same chaotic predicaments.
Images flow between documentary and drama, blending archival materials, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. How do the young people envision their future? What do they think about this seemingly unwinnable revolution?
Conceived in 2017 and filmed over 5 years, BLUE ISLAND confronts the large-scale 2019 protests in Hong Kong. A new wave of young people take back the streets, as one generation after another has done throughout Hong Kong’s history. The past, the present and the future converge within a relentlessly documenting lens.
“Deeply rewarding… poignant, personal stories. Constructs a sweeping history of dissent in Hong Kong over the course of decades.” —Redefine Magazine
—New Directors New Films 2022
—Best Documentary, CAAM FEST 2022
—Best International Feature Documentary Award, Hot Docs 2022
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