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Interview with Freddie Wong, curator at the HKIFF Society
Interview with Freddie Wong Page 1
Info
Author(s) : Thomas Podvin
Date : 4/1/2005
Type(s) : Interview
 
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 Notes  
Interview conducted by Thomas Podvin.
Special thanks to Mr. Freddie Wong for his time and for editing the interview.
Thanks extended to Mr. Pierre Rissient.
Visit the HKIFF website at www.hkiff.org.hk


Programmer and former President of the HK Film Critics Society, Freddie Wong studied film-making in France in the late 70’s. He got involved in the HKIFF in 1979, at the 4th edition. After 4 years he left the festival. He came back at the HKIFF for the 25th edition. Totally, he has worked for the festival for 8 years. In between he worked 3 years at the HK Art centre, 3 years as Chief Editor for SUPERCAR ( a car magazine in HK ), and 3 years at Edko Films Ltd, a distribution and cinema circuit company. Today, as a programmer Freddie talks with us about the HK International Film Festival and how it works behind the scene. What is it, how is it run, and under which institution…? You’ll know everything.

HKCinemagic.com: Back in the 70’s, who was at the origin of the HK International Film Festival (HKIFF)? Where they involved in the film production?
Freddie Wong: Absolutely. At the time passionate people worked at the Urban and Cultural Services Department, under the Urban Council. At that time, it was a small department. Now it is called Leisure & Cultural Services Department (LCSD). They were Roger Garcia and Paul Yeung, the manager of City Hall at that time. They proposed to create a small scaled film festival.

HKCM: When did the festival encounter success then?
F.W.: The first and second festivals were still small. When I joined the festival it was about as important as now. We had 3 sections: Asia Cinema, International cinema and HK Cinema. At this time there were already 3 programmers for each section. For the 4th and 5th editions I was in charge of the Asian cinema section. For the 6th and 7th editions I worked on the International section. We were the first to organize a retrospective for Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu, showing about 15 films. It was very successful.

HKCM: The HK International Film Festival Society was created on summer 2004. Why waiting so long to create such society?
F.W.: When I came back to work for the film festival, it was still under the LCSD. The following year, the festival was taken over by the HK Arts Development Council (HKADC). At that time it was still co presented by the LCSD and the HKADC. The following years the HKADC run the festival. At that time they were already talking about making it a corporation to become independent. The aim to create the society was therefore to become independent. We called it a society, so we can do many more things. That’s why, since July 2004 we have more programmes. The festival society wants to do more things. Not only the festival that happens once a year, but also proposing other things.


HKCM: Has this new orientation been successful so far?
F.W.: Yes. Our monthly programmes were screened in two major venues, the HK Art Centre in Wanchai and the Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei. This cinematheque was run by Edko Films, it’s a multiplex with 4 houses. And I happened to be the director of the cinematheque when it was first started.

HKCM: It’s a small world!
F.W.: I have worked for the Art Centre, and also for the cinematheque… So we had two venues and I think the Broadway Cinematheque is more successful in terms of attendance. The HK Art Centre is not so popular now, even if we have the same programme. So the Society has been popular because we have run programmes on a monthly basis. In July 2004 we had the Aki Kaurismäki retrospective. In August we had the Japanese animation week, in September we had a full François Truffaut retrospective, in October we had the One World Film Festival, with films dealing with humanism or with humanitarian approach, in November we had the Euro Vision, which is a kind of film festival for European films. And these programmes were rather popular. Basically we have created some noises, so we have been approached by consulates of many different countries, proposing to have some kind of collaboration.

HKCM: What kind of audience do you have?
F.W.: For these programmes I think the age group is the younger generation, of course we have more Chinese than expatriates.

HKCM: What is the relationship between the HKIFF and the HK Film Archive (HKFA)?
F.W.: That’s a good question because actually in the past, when the HKIFF was under the LCSD, the HKIFF and the HKFA were in the same office, called Film Programme Office. It was like the right hand and left hand. The HKIFF is the left hand and the HKFA is the right hand. And during the festival period they worked together every year. Actually the HKFA will be doing retrospectives for HK films or Chinese films, and the HKIFF will be doing the Asian and International sections, and also the Hong Kong Panorama. But then after the corporatization of the HKIFF, the festival isn’t LCSD or HKADC anymore, because we became independent. But the HKFA remains in the Film Programme Office and is still being run and supervised by the LCSD. Now, during the film festival, we work together, because the HKFA has some programmes on HK films, some retrospectives. But now it is a separate entity. In the past the HKFA and HKIFF were together, worked together.

HKCM: How successful the HKIFF has been over the last 3 decades?
F.W.: Freddie Wong: In the long term the HKIFF was successful pointed to HK audience to nurture the film culture here. On the other hand, it’s very important that HK films and Chinese language films have been introduced and promoted to the western audience. And I think it’s a rather long term process. We cannot tell which year was more successful. Overall, we can say that it’s one of the most successful directions that the HKIFF has been taken. For recent years, we started to organise competition and it was a breakthrough. In the past 20 years there haven’t been any competitions. 5-6 years ago we have introduced the FIPRESCI Awards. 3 years ago we started 3 major competitions: the Firebird Awards, or the International competition for young cinema, Asian DV awards, the Humanitarian Awards for Best documentary… We have many awards now.



The first year, when we organised these awards we have been suffering from the SARS virus. Although we still have the competition, some of the jury didn’t come. Last year we had Hou Hsiao Hsien in our Main jury, and Marco Bellocchio was the Jury President.
For the coming HKIFF, we are not sure yet whether we will have this kind of competitions. Because we are facing cuts in the budget.

HKCM: Is it because you’ve become independent?
F.W.: Well, for the past 2 years we’ve been successful in getting commercial sponsors. Cathay Pacific was a big sponsor. Then the government said that if you have a sponsor, we don’t have to give you much money, so they cut the budget. Unfortunately, this year Cathay Pacific withdraws suddenly. Even our contact people at Cathay didn’t know about this decision from the top level. We lost the money. We still have the festival going so we try to accommodate with this by cutting down the screenings and the number of films. But we succeeded in maintaining the quality of the festival.

HKCM: Do you get subvention from the Chinese government or the HK government?
F.W.: No, we are not involved with the Chinese government but with the HK government. The money which is used to organise the festival has always been the money from the government, the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB). When the HKIFF was organised by the LCSD, the money came from the HAB. When it was organised by HKADC, it was also from the HAB. Now, even we are independent, the subsidy still comes from the HAB. We can get commercial sponsors which in the past was impossible, because as a government body, you cannot get commercial sponsors. Now that we are independent, even the HKIFF was organised by HKADC we were allowed to get sponsors.
In the future, we have to survive with the money from the government and also from sponsors. This is why we try to get there sponsors money because we try to do more: organise competitions, to link up with the HK film market… All this cost more money. That’s why we try very hard to get some sponsors and to get money so that we can do more things.

HKCM: Do you get much money from the ticket office?
F.W.: Yes, quite a substantial amount of money comes from the box office. It’s several millions HK dollars. So it’s a part of our pot.

HKCM: The HKIFF is a big showcase in Asia for HK films. Do you have any relationships and exchanges with French festival or the French Cinematheque?
F.W.: At the moment we have unofficial collaboration with film festivals, film business and cinematheque. The collaboration we have in France is like we sometimes suggest films to Cannes or for La Quinzaine des Realisateurs, or other festivals. We will provide them with updated information about Hong Kong or Chinese language films that might be interesting for inclusion in Cannes competition, for example.

HKCM: How do you deal with the prints when you organise a retrospective?
F.W.: When we had the Francois Truffaut retrospective, the prints came from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not the French Cinematheque. But it’s very expensive to organise it. Even for the films coming from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we have to pay copyrights for every title. We have to find copies outside France. Some prints came from the USA, 1 or 2 from the UK, and also from Australia. We tried to get the films from all over the world. We got some prints form the French Cinematheque. But I don’t think they have too many copies of Truffaut films, especially those with English subtitles…

HKCM: Do you always present films with English and Chinese subtitles?
F.W.: For Chinese, we do electronic subtitles. Even if you have Chinese subtitles you need the English one, because HK is bilingual, English and Chinese. So the best is to get the English subtitled prints. Most of our audience can read English subs. Sometimes we also add Chinese subs, it’s electronic subs.

 

 
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