Fresh Wave Festival Loses Three Films as Hong Kong Steps up Political Censorship
variety.comVivienne Chow A Taiwanese filmmaker has made his short film inspired by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests available online for free after it failed to get approval from the city’s censorship authorities.Wu Zi-en, director of “Islander,” has uploaded the full 25-minute film noir to online platform Vimeo last week, after it became the third film in a month to have been censored by Hong Kong authorities.The city last year changed censorship regulations to effectively ban any film that is politically sensitive or poses a threat to national security.“Islander” follows a man and his grandson’s journey to visit the son, who has been placed behind bars as a political prisoner in Taipei.
The film was selected as part of the Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival in Hong Kong, but its public screening was canceled because the film did not receive the approval in time.
Fresh Wave organizers did not respond to Variety‘s request for comment. Wu told media that he chose to set the film in Taiwan and during the island’s own ‘White Terror’ period, as he is worried that Taiwan may fall under the Communist Party rule.
He described it as a fable about Taiwan’s imagined future.“‘Islander’ is an imagined future [of Taiwan] under authoritarian rule.
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