After successfully adapting to life in Hong Kong, I was struck suddenly with a whole new world to adapt to; Film Festival Culture. The Festival, the whole reason we were in Hong Kong in the first place, was a crazy environment unlike anything else I have ever experienced. My days were suddenly filled with endless train hopping and new adventures as we tried to find all the cinemas for different screenings. We were warned before we left how draining watching 4 movies a day was, but it’s something that cannot be truly understood until you’ve sat through 5 hours of observational documentaries and still have another screening to get through. Something else we were warned about was how cold the cinemas are. You’ve never experienced true public embarrassment until you’ve put a pair of pants over your clothes in the middle of a packed cinema with hundreds of watching eyes; even better when you have to strip off at the end of the movie to survive the humidity outside. In all seriousness though, the festival was amazing. While it’s a struggle to watch 4 movies in a day, it’s also a routine that grows on you quite quickly, and I know it will be sorely missed when we have to leave.
Megan Oxenham, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Screen) student participating in the “East Asian Film Industry Engagement Project” in April 2017
- Read Megan’s first post here