To get in the touristy bits, to take the ferry, to see a thousand buddhas, to cope with the weather- it was exciting and exhausting. There was a part of me that couldn’t wait to get to the films. I wanted to experience the Hong Kong cinema scene, to see how audiences responded, to feel the atmosphere and compare that to what I was judging on screen. The festival framework provided a layer of examination on top of that. I was in a screening of Jaqcues Rivette’s La Belle Noiseuse, when I was first struck with what I admire most about audiences of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. They were earnest. This could be considered true of Hong Kong audiences in general, but my involvement with them was limited (I don’t think festival audiences were exclusive or “special”, perhaps the setting brings something out in participation). Here, their engagement was forward, direct, attentive. A small cinema with uncomfortable seats weathering a four hour film without intermission. They laughed and sighed, and felt attune with the effortless expression Rivette was creating. There was no moment of thought that this could have been an arduous
To get in the touristy bits, to take the ferry, to see a thousand buddhas, to cope with the weather- it was exciting and exhausting. There was a part of me that couldn’t wait to get to the films. I wanted to experience the Hong Kong cinema scene, to see how audiences responded, to feel the atmosphere and compare that to what I was judging on screen. The festival framework provided a layer of examination on top of that. I was in a screening of Jaqcues Rivette’s La Belle Noiseuse, when I was first struck with what I admire most about audiences of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. They were earnest. This could be considered true of Hong Kong audiences in general, but my involvement with them was limited (I don’t think festival audiences were exclusive or “special”, perhaps the setting brings something out in participation). Here, their engagement was forward, direct, attentive. A small cinema with uncomfortable seats weathering a four hour film without intermission. They laughed and sighed, and felt attune with the effortless expression Rivette was creating. There was no moment of thought that this could have been an arduous