A short film censored in Hong Kong for a second of images on the demonstrations

Hong Kong has banned the screening of an animated short due to a one-second shot of 2014 pro-democracy protests in a city where Beijing has drastically curtailed freedom of speech. The Ground Up Film Society told AFP it had canceled the screening of the film. Losing Sight of a Longed Placescheduled for Sunday as part of its film festival, as Hong Kong authorities refused to allow an uncut version to be screened.

This eight-minute film was originally a student project telling the true story of an LGBT rights activist in Hong Kong. It won “Best Animated Short Film” at the 2017 Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan. Hong Kong censorship has “required to cut a scene that lasts less than a second, because it showed the circumstances of a “illegal occupation”», Festival organizers said in a statement.

The film includes a brief shot of tents and slogans showing the movement of umbrellas, pro-democracy Hong Kong in 2014, which authorities describe as an illegal occupation of thoroughfares in the heart of the city’s business district. After large, often violent protests in 2019, Beijing has cracked down hard on dissenting voices in Hong Kong. Those who remain claim that creative and expressive freedoms have been drastically curtailed.

Last year, the Hong Kong legislature amended the rules of censorship of movies so that they comply with the national security law imposed by Beijing. The distribution of unauthorized films can lead to a fine of one million Hong Kong dollars (127,000 euros) and three years in detention, according to this reform.

Acclaimed internationally, the short film had also been celebrated by the Metropolitan University of Hong Kong, where the directors, then students, had created it. The faculty previously used the artwork to promote their undergraduate film course, but as of Friday, August 12, the film can no longer be viewed on their YouTube channel.

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