Unwilling to make the sort of news reportage that was being continuously aired following the June 4 massacre, in Sunless Days, director Shu Kei turns to his family and friends, producing a very personal document of what the Tiananmen Massacre means, particularly from the perspective of Hong Kong, with the 1997 handover looming. Speaking to Chinese both in Hong Kong and overseas, in Australia and Canada for example, this filmic essay intermingles poetic reflection with documentary interviews and archival news footage, to give sensitive, frank and insightful account of the greater impact of Beijing’s crackdown on the protest movement beyond the 1989 borders of the People’s Republic, to a global Chinese community. Winner of the OCIC Award at the 1990 Berlin Film Festival.

The film screening will be followed by a short discussion.

This film is part of the monthly film series Asia and the Pacific Screens, sponsored by the Australian Centre on China in the World.

Directed by Shu Kei 舒琪 (a.k.a Kenneth Ip 葉健行)

1990, 90 minutes

in Cantonese & Mandarin Chinese, with English subtitles

This special film event commemorates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Protest Movement at Tiananmen Square in Beijing and the nationwide crackdown on 4 June 1989.