Ngan Chi Sing, or Twinkle, as he prefers to be called, shifts from giddy excitement to tears.
After three years of blood, sweat and tears, he is thrilled about the release of his first feature film, but also sad about how it has unfolded.
“My mum was in the kitchen. She looked at me and said, 'it’s time for you to leave Hong Kong now,'” he tells SBS News from his new home in the United Kingdom.
“'I don’t want to see you arrested', [she said]. It was heartbreaking.”
The 35-year-old says he felt he had to leave in order to ensure his film would be released to the world.
“The situation is Hong Kong is not good. People in this film that I interviewed have been arrested and their cases [are] still in the courts."
This week, three years ago, marked the beginning of mass protests against a later withdrawn extradition bill, which aimed to allow fugitives to be extradited to mainland China.
Ngan fears he could fall foul of the vague and far-reaching nature of the national security law enacted in the city in mid-2020 which forbids secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
Hong Kong also passed new film censorship laws in October, outlawing movies that could violate the national security law. Public screenings of films about the protests such as and Inside the Red Brick Wall have been banned in the territory.
The 35-year-old left Hong Kong last November and despite having differences in political views with his mother, he breaks down as he speaks about her.
“She hasn’t seen the film; she is a bit pro-Beijing in her views. But she wants me to be successful, she has seen the many efforts I have put into this film in the last three years.
“I have used all my savings, all my red pockets [New Year’s money] from the years, on the project.”
Ngan started studying film four years ago and says he also honed his skills through the internet.
His film, Love in the Time of Revolution, documents the passion and spirit of ordinary people during the 2019-20 protests in Hong Kong.
“I’m just an ordinary person and I wanted to follow the lives of ordinary Hongkongers and share their stories about their love for the people, for the city,” he says.
Ngan initially recorded the protests on his camera, unsure of what he would do with it, but after he was helped by protesters on the front line when he was hit by tear gas, he says he realised what his calling would be.
“I saw how much fellow citizens were putting into the protests, and this was what I can give.
“I would love to have had a premiere for the film in Hong Kong, with the crew, to thank them for their efforts, but it is just impossible now.”
Hong Kong Film Festival
Ngan’s film is one of six which are being showcased as part of the Hong Kong Film Festival in Melbourne this week. The selection covers the 2014 Umbrella Movement to the 2019 demonstrations including Yellowing, Independently Yours: Last Exit to Kai Tak and Revolution of Our Times.
Jane Poon, co-chair of the Victoria Hongkongers Association, which has organised a festival featuring Hong Kong films that are banned from being screened in the former British colony.
“Our aim, our insistence, is to let people know about what actually was happening in 2019,” she says.
One of the award-winning documentaries being shown is Inside the Red Brick Wall, which is a deep dive into the stand-off between police and demonstrators at Hong Kong's Polytechnic University in late 2019.
Six films are being showcased as part of the Hong Kong film festival in Melbourne. Source: Supplied
Some other states are also showing the film.
SBS News spoke to Leung*, a former protester who arrived in Sydney last week and attended a screening of Inside the Red Brick Wall there on Sunday.
“I think we just need something to keep the memory fresh, to use the energy to continue on with the fight,” he said.
A cinema in Sydney is screening films about Hong Kong's protest movement.
Sam*, who arrived in Sydney in January said despite the confronting nature of the films, Hongkongers want to engage with it as it was part of their identity.
“I guess it is part of a healing process as well, but I’m not sure a lot of us will ever be healed.”
The Chinese embassy in Australia did not respond to a request for comment about the film festival.
*Name has been changed to protect identity.
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