Oscar-nominated 'Do Not Split' now part of Hong Kong's story of waning freedoms -director

Television Broadcasts

20/04/2021 04:11

By Aleksander Solum
    HONG KONG, April 20 (Reuters) - The decision in Hong Kong
not to air this year's Oscars has only brought more global
attention to its struggle for democracy, said the director of
the "Do Not Split" documentary about the city's 2019 protests,
which has been short-listed for an award.    
    Free-to-air broadcaster TVB, which has broadcast the Oscars
every year since 1969, said it would not carry the ceremony this
year for commercial reasons.    
    TVB's decision has fuelled concerns about dwindling freedoms
in Hong Kong, which has taken an authoritarian path since China
imposed a sweeping national security law last year in response
to the often violent protests of 2019.
    Norwegian filmmaker Anders Hammer told Reuters in an
interview he believed the decision was politically motivated,
but helps bring even more global attention to Hong Kong, the
primary aim of his documentary in the first place.
    "It's sad that the Oscars are being censored in Hong Kong in
the way that people can't see it as they have done for 52 years
on normal TV," Hammer said in a video call from Oslo, where he
will be during the awards ceremony due to the pandemic.
    "In a way, our documentary has become part of the story told
in our movie, which is how the room for expression and the
freedom of the press and other basic democratic rights are
disappearing in Hong Kong." 
    In an emailed response to questions, TVB said "it was purely
a commercial decision that we decided not to pursue the Oscars
this year," and declined further comment.
    The Hong Kong government did not respond to a request for
comment. 
    The Oscars can still be viewed online in Hong Kong.
    For the first time at the Oscars, a Hong Kong-born director,
Derek Tsang, has earned a nomination. His romantic crime movie
"Better Days" is short-listed in the best international feature
film category.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2M50E8
    Scrutiny over arts, media and culture has intensified in
recent months in Hong Kong, where cinemas pulled a local protest
documentary, a university cancelled a press photography
exhibition, and a soon-to-open contemporary art museum said it
will allow the police's new national security unit to vet its
collections.
    Authorities have said rights and freedoms in Hong Kong
remain intact, and the former British colony retains a high
degree of autonomy from Beijing, but national security was a red
line not to be crossed. 
    Many of the city's officials criticised coverage of the
protests that gave vast air-time to the demonstrators as
attempts to "glorify violence".
    "Do Not Split", short-listed in the short subject
documentary category, follows different groups of protesters
from the summer of 2019 until the coronavirus and the national
security law put an end to demonstrations a year later.
    Its opening scene shows a group of black-clad demonstrators
asking for directions to a Bank of China branch, which they
later set on fire in a show of anger over Beijing's increasingly
tighter grip on Hong Kong.
    The security law drew criticism from Western governments and
international rights groups who say it has put the global
financial hub on an authoritarian path. Its supporters say the
law has restored order.
    Since it was introduced, dozens of activists and opposition
politicians have been jailed. More than 10,000 people were
arrested in relation to the protests. Many activists, including
U.S.-based Joey Siu, who appears in the documentary, have fled
the city to continue their advocacy. 
    "The saddest part of working on this documentary was to see
how the whole situation affected the people I was following,"
Hammer said.
    "I felt I became close to them, I was filming them in a very
intimate way and I was following them in many, many situations."

 (Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Karishma Singh)
 ((marius.zaharia@thomsonreuters.com; +852 2843 6358;))