Cinema Strada
聲影路

Donna Ong
Filmmaker

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Year

2024

Duration

1h 46min 18s

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About the Filmmaker

An Academic-turned-Filmmaker, Cinema Strada is Donna’s first feature documentary. She double majored in Film Studies and Political Science at Yale University as an Undergraduate and completed her Doctorate degree at the University of Hong Kong’s Comparative Literature Department. Prior to her work in film, she worked in international diplomacy and political analysis. After co-curating a film festival in Hong Kong with Law Kar in 2019, she was inspired to pivot into production.

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Synopsis

In the midst of a new Cold War, 80-year old Hong Kong film critic Law Kar reflects on his memories of the last century in a city where cultural and political forces meet head to head to uncover root causes of today’s ideological clash, and the critical role that cinema has played in defining “right” and “wrong”.

Having devoted much of his career to programming and film history research, Law Kar places himself before the camera for the first time. This nostalgic trip down memory lane, as he recounts his personal and cinematic experiences, from film criticism, experimental filmmaking to auditioning for Federico Fellini, culminates in a brief history of Hong Kong cinema itself. Reflecting on the past 80 years, Law Kar’s affectionate documentary sheds light on local movies and Chinese cinema, brooding over the socio-political transformation of the perplexed city, as the restless cinephile ponders the role cinema and art play in times of crisis.

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