Asian Independent Cinema Showcase
North American Premiere of DRIFTING PETALS 花果飄零 and
Conversation with Director Clara Law 羅卓瑤
Saturday, 20 January 2024
14:00-16:00 PST (screening); 16:00-17:00 PST (virtual conversation)
Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
(3/F Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver)
Parking/Public tranport | Map
Join us for the North American Premiere of DRIFTING PETALS 花果飄零, followed by a virtual conversation with Director Clara Law 羅卓瑤 and producer/writer Eddie Fong 方令正. Shot in Australia, Hong Kong and Macau, DRIFTING PETALS is the latest work by critically-acclaimed director Clara Law who won the Best Director Award in the Golden Horse International Film Festival 2021 . Made over 5 years, the bold feature explores the possibility of alternate cinema, and invites the viewers to ponder on diaspora, home, and memory. The creators called the film a “eulogy in memory of the city”.
This is a spotlight event to inaugurate the Asian Independent Cinema Showcase and is co-organized by the Hong Kong Studies Initiative, University of British Columbia, and the Institute for Transpacific Cultural Research, Simon Fraser University.
The film is in Cantonese with English subtitles, and the conversation will be conducted in English. This is a free of charge, in person event. Seats are limited. Registration required.
About DRIFTING PETALS:
Directed by Clara Law | Written by Clara Law & Eddie Fong
Cantonese | English subtitles | 110 mins | 2021 | Colour | Drama
Synopsis:
She, the filmmaker, first met Jeff in Australia, a piano student who came to study music, and took him to see “The Walls of China”. She met him in Hong Kong three years later. He told her of his insomnia since his return from his performance master course in Manchester, and the people he came across when he went to the “umbrella movement” sites to pay his tribute. Night after sleepless night he met different people that were involved one way or other with the movement and got tangled up with their lives, among them a young girl who could see the dead. As she listened, the memories of her long lost brother flooded back and she went back to Macao to look for her childhood home which she couldn’t find and instead came face to face with a teenager who seemed to be her long disappeared big brother. The stories of these two people merged as they met with the living and the dead, she looking for answer to an unsolved mystery that had scarred her for life and he trying to make peace with an uncertain future.
Trailer: English version | Chinese version
Festivals participation:
- Sydney International Film Festival
- Golden Horse International Film Festival
- Rotterdam International Film Festival
About Director Clara Law:
Law graduated from the University of Hong Kong in English Literature and studied film at the National Film School, England, winning the Silver Plague Award (Chicago Film Festival) with her graduation film THEY SAY THE MOON IS FULLER HERE. Returning to Hong Kong she crafted a number of internationally acclaimed features including AUTUMN MOON (winner Golden Leopard Locarno, Best Picture European Art Theatres Association, Youth Special Jury Award Switzerland, 1992), TEMPTATION OF A MONK (competition Venice 1993, Grand Prix Creteil 1994). She moved to Australia in 1995 and continued to win many international awards including FLOATING LIFE (Silver Leopard Locarno, Best Film and Best Director Gijon, Grand Prix Creteil, Grand Prix Asturias, 1996), THE GODDESS OF 1967 (Best Actress Award Venice, Best Director Chicago, Best Director Teplice Artfilm, FIPRESCI Critics’ Award Best Film Tromso, 2000), LETTERS TO ALI (credited as 100 greatest films of Australian cinema by the critics), LIKE A DREAM (opening film Hong Kong Film Festival 2010), RED EARTH, (commissioned by HKFF, competition Venice 2010). DRIFTING PETALS, a bold feature exploring the possibility of alternate cinema shot in Australia, Hong Kong and Macau, won the Best Director Award in the Golden Horse International Film Festival 2021. Through the years her films have had innumerable nominations in the Golden Horse FF, HK Film Awards, AACTA Awards and been selected in many international film festivals including New York, Venice, Toronto, Sundance, Locarno, Rotterdam, Pusan, Jerusalem and London. Currently she is working on the sequel of DRIFTING PETALS.
導演 ： 羅卓瑤 | 編劇： 羅卓瑤 、方令正
粵語 | 英文字幕 | 110 mins | 2021 | 彩色 | 戲劇
故事大綱：
電影人第一次遇見J是在澳洲，他前來留學鋼琴，她帶他參觀了當地的景點，在沙漠中的 「中國長城」，他深有感觸。三年後他們在香港再遇，他告訴她剛自英國進修鋼琴回來，因時差而失眠，在夜街遊蕩，遇上了形形式式的人物，始發覺自己與這個出生長大的城市有了隔閡，如陌路人。電影人因J提起的鋼琴音樂，觸發她回到多年沒有踏足的出生地澳門，發現一切都改變了，記憶中的澳門已蕩然無存，再找不到兒時舊居，她在陌生夜街徘徊時，被一少年幽靈如影随形跟着她四處遊蕩，發覺他酷似她小時候失踪的哥哥，那年她哥哥十六歲，此事一直是家中的禁忌。J被捲入各式夜遊人物之間糾纏不清的關係，如一夢魘，與電影人和那若隱若現少年幽靈的故事融合在一起，如一訣哀歌，悼念一個失去了的城市。
曾參予電影節：
- 悉尼國際電影節
- 台北金馬國際影展
- 鹿特丹國際電影節
羅卓瑤導演：
導演、編劇及製作人。香港大學英國文學系畢業，於英國國立電影電視學院進修導演及編劇科，畢業作品《外國的月亮圓些》於芝加哥電影節獲得銀牌獎，回港後拍攝了多部受國際肯定的電影， 包括《秋月》獲盧卡諾影展金豹獎、歐洲藝術影院協會最佳電影及青年評審團大獎；《誘僧》入選威尼斯影展競賽單元及法國克雷泰伊影展最佳電影。
於1995年移居澳洲，拍攝了多部享譽國際的電影，包括《浮生》獲盧卡諾銀豹獎、西班牙希洪影展最佳影片及最佳導演及法国克雷伊泰影展最佳電影；《遇上1967的女神》獲威尼斯影展最佳女主角、芝加哥影展最佳導演、捷克特普利採影展最佳導演及挪威特羅姆瑟影展國際影評人最佳電影獎；《給亞里的信》入選澳洲最佳百部電影；香港電影節邀請拍攝之短片《赤地》入選威尼斯影展競赛單元；《花果飄零》得2021年金馬獎最佳導演。
多年來作品曾多次入圍金馬獎、香港電影金像獎和澳洲金像獎 ，及受邀參加世界各地的國際影展，包括紐約、威尼斯、多倫多、聖丹斯、盧卡諾、鹿特丹、 釜山、倫敦、溫哥華及耶路撒冷等。 目前正在籌備《花果飄零》續篇的製作。
About the Asian Independent Cinema Showcase:
The Asian Independent Cinema Showcase (AICS) is a UBC-based film festival that aims to foster a film appreciation community within and beyond the university; cultivate media literacy and cross-cultural understanding; and give voices to independent stories told by Asian filmmakers. Broadly speaking, an "independent film" is considered to be a creative work produced outside big or mainstream studios. Through the lens of independent cinemas, the AICS is committed to serve as a participatory platform for publication and dialogue between independent storytellers, underrepresented groups, cultural practitioners, emerging talents, academics, students, and members of the public.
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The AICS is supported by the UBC Public Humanities Seed Grant; and is co-convened and co-organized by Dr. Helena Wu, Canada Research Chair in Hong Kong Studies, and Jimmy Lo, filmmaker and film educator who is pursuing his MFA in Film Production at UBC.
This event is part of the Asian Independent Cinema Showcase program; is co-organized by the Hong Kong Studies Initiative, University of British Columbia, and the Institute for Transpacific Cultural Research, Simon Fraser University; and is supported by the UBC Department of Asian Studies, Public Humanities Hub, the Watt Family – Hong Kong Studies Initiative Fund, and the Centre for Chinese Research.
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