Between colony and nation: Decolonial visions in Hong Kong independent cinema

Deepening integration of Hong Kong’s commercial film production with Mainland China and the apparently inevitable marginalization of local-content films in the last ten years or so call for closer attention to the role and significance of independent films. As a critical art form, independent cinema in Hong Kong constitutes an alternative cultural space where artistic experimentation and sociopolitical critique generally avoided in mainstream productions are still actively pursued. Drawing upon recent writings on the Hong Kong independent film scene, this article explores the way in which independent films critically engage with the double hegemony of the national and the colonial in the postcolonial present. It argues that coloniality in Hong Kong is the result of the dual processes of British colonialism and decolonization in the name of ‘one country, two systems’, which effectively brings together the utilitarian aspirations and institutional excesses of colonial capitalism and socialist capitalism. Against this background, selected works by film-makers at different stages of their creative careers will be examined to shed light on the way in which decolonial visual thinking operates in the film text to intervene in the colonial/national discourse of history and identity in the post-handover era.