One week ago I landed back in Adelaide after a two week stay in Hong Kong. And while coming back to Adelaide is a welcome flight, the change to clean, non-humid air being the most welcome part, looking back on those two weeks reflects a huge amount of experiences that wouldn’t have been possible without the trip.

Through this trip I was able to embrace a completely different culture. As this trip was undertaken as part of the Asian Cinema topic this culture was revealed to me largely through the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and the various other experiences I had with the film industry in Hong Kong.

Over the two weeks of the Film Festival I saw brand new films from Asia, I saw films from the Paradigm Shift program encompassing the cultural change in Hong Kong cinema after the 1997 handover. Outside the festival I had the opportunity to visit Milkyway Image, a leading Hong Kong productions company, and One Cool Film, a Hong Kong based post-production house. These helped provide a greater insight into the culture surrounding the production of Hong Kong cinema, as did a visit to the Hong Kong Film Archive, in which I saw the new exhibition on costume in Hong Kong films.

Reflecting on an experience as expansive and dense as this trip is hard to put into words, however it remains essential to express how impactful and insightful this trip has been. Travelling with the university gave me access that I wouldn’t have had otherwise, giving me entrance to all these aspects of film around Hong Kong, making this one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve taken part in.

Brendan Kearns, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Screen) student participating in the “East Asian Film Industry Engagement Project” in April 2017

• Read Brendan’s first post here