Award-winning animation pulled from film event after directors decline to remove scene with Hong Kong’s Occupy protests

An award-winning local animation production on the struggles of sexual minorities has been pulled from an independent film event after its directors declined to meet censors’ requirement and edit out a one-second scene portraying the 2014 Occupy protests in Hong Kong.

Losing Sight of A Longed Place was supposed to be shown this coming Sunday afternoon at the Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, as part of a film show organised by the Ground Up Film Society.

The 7½-minute animation is a student project that tells the story about the fight, frustration, and reflections of a Hong Kong gay rights activist. The production caught the eyes of the media after it was named the best animated short film at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards in 2017.

The organiser of the event said it submitted the animation to the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (OFNAA) for film classification early last month, but was only informed recently that it could not show the full version.

“[They] asked that a scene which is less than a second long be edited out, noting that the scene has portrayed the circumstances of the illegal occupation,” said the society in a written reply to the Post.

“Illegal occupation” is the term used by the government and pro-Beijing camp to refer to the Occupy protests in 2014. Supporters and activists call it the “Umbrella Movement”. Then, protesters took over some of the main roads across Hong Kong in a bid to force Beijing to give the city more democracy. The movement eventually collapsed.

Ground Up Film Society said it was told by the OFNAA: “If the production team cannot cut out the scene in question as required … it would not be issued the certificate of approval and any public screening will not be allowed.”