Opening Gala: If we burn (UK PREMIERE) 血在燒（英國首映）
Hong Kong / 2023 / Colour / 265 mins / In Cantonese and English with Chinese and English subtitles / Dir. James LEONG and Lynn LEE
Summer 2019. Hong Kong’s leaderless pro-democracy movement stuns Beijing and captures the world’s attention. ‘If We Burn’ is an urgent, immersive journey into the protests, and a meditation on what it means to resist.
“Hundreds of thousands of men and women fill the streets of Hong Kong, wielding umbrellas as armour. Police brandish batons, and tear gas canisters explode. It is June 2019, and the city’s governor Carrie Lam is attempting to pass a bill allowing China to extradite people to the mainland for trial. Up to a million people march in protest and If We Burn plunges you into the heart of this vast civic uprising, its fervour building as the police backlash grows.
With much of the footage coming from cameras weaving through the crowds at eye-level with protestors, If We Burn brings viewers viscerally close to the pro-democracy protest’s frontline, where violence and chaos unfold on screen as if in real time. James Leong and Lynn Lee deliver an excellent work of documentary filmmaking that marries the urgency of its topic and high cinematic qualities.
Collaborators for over a decade, Leong and Lee have forged a reputation for their penetrating documentary work, gaining accolades from human-rights and film organisations alike. The film marks a striking return to Rotterdam for the Singapore-based duo, following an earlier work-in-progress version (If We Burn, IFFR 2020).”
—By Imogen Greenhalgh, IFFR 2023
The Opening Gala Screening in London on 18th March will be followed by a live online Q&A session with Dir. James LEONG and Dir. Lynn Lee, hosted by Dr. Victor FAN. All other screenings will feature a pre-recorded post-screening Q&A.
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James and Lynn’s documentaries have screened at festivals such as Hotdocs, IDFA and Yamagata. Their first film, Passabe (2004) - about truth and reconciliation in East Timor - received a grant from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. Homeless FC (2006) won the top prize at the Chinese Documentary Festival in Hong Kong. Aki Ra’s Boys (2006) won the Encyclopedia Award at the Almaty International Film Festival. Wukan (2015) was awarded Best Feature at the Freedom Film Festival, the Chinese Documentary Festival and Chop Shots Film Festival. It also won First Prize at the Human Rights Press Awards and received a special mention at the Dubai International Film Festival. Umbrella Diaries: The First Umbrella was nominated for Best Feature Documentary at the 55th Golden Horse Awards.
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Supported by Sundance Institute Documentary Fund Grant
A work-in progress won the Next Award at DMZ International Documentary Film Festival in 2020
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International Film Festival Rotterdam 2023
