Elegies, Winter Chants

Source: Golden Scene

(l-r) ‘Elegies’, ‘Winter Chants’

Hong Kong’s Golden Scene has launched sales of Ann Hui’s Elegies and Tsang Tsui Shan’s Winter Chants, ahead of their international premieres at the upcoming Busan International Film Festival and DMZ International Documentary Film Festival respectively.

Elegies will play in Busan’s Icons strand, following its world premiere as an opening film at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) in March. It is the latest work by Hui, the iconic Hong Kong New Wave director who received the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award at Venice in 2020.

The documentary is a tribute to some of Hong Kong’s most notable poets through Hui’s personal encounters with the unrestrained Huang Canran, the cosmopolitan Liu Wai-tong and the late Xi Xi who recited her own poem about the old Kai Tak Airport.

Winter Chants, which also premiered at this year’s HKIFF and won the EBS Prime Pitch Fund Award at DMZ Industry in 2021, will play in the Verite strand of DMZ Docs in South Korea. Following narrative feature Big Blue Lake (winner of best new director at the Hong Kong Film Awards) and documentary Flowing Stories, director Tsang once again spotlights her home village, Ho Chung.

In her new documentary, she follows the preparations for the Tai Ping Ching Chiu Festival, which takes place every 10 years and brings villagers back from all over the world. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hits, the film follows what happens around this long-awaited reunion.

Golden Scene handles world sales of both documentaries.