Flowing Stories is a documentary about changes, migration of Hong Kong people and the unknowability of the future. The film tracks Ho Chung Village’s myriad changes over the years through the Lau’s family, the director’s neighbours. A few decades ago, many of the Ho Chung villagers migrated to Europe to earn a living in the restaurant trade. As the young men and women matured, they married and formed families, yet their attachment to Ho Chung remains unchanged. Held once every decade, Ho Chung’s Village Festival is a traditional ceremony that is passed down from generation to generation and provides an opportunity for families to get together and for far-flung sons and daughters to return to their home village.

Tsui-shan Jessey Tsang is a Hong Kong film director, scriptwriter and documentary filmmaker who has won multiple awards at various international film festivals. Strong of an extensive travelling experience, with film titles such as, Lonely Planet and Lovers on the Road, she continues to explore in Flowing Stories the contradiction between one’s attachment to the roots and life in displacement.

This event is part of Waving Kites: Hong Kong Diasporic Cinema UK Tour, organised by the Chinese Independent Film Archive at Newcastle University, in partnership with Filmhouse.

 

Waving Kites: Hong Kong Diasporic Cinema UK Tour, taking place in Newcastle, Manchester, Edinburgh, Sheffield, and London from April to May 2026, explores Hongkonger diasporic experiences across diverse moments and places. The tour forms part of a wider project on Hong Kong independent cinema led by the Chinese Independent Film Archive (CIFA) at Newcastle University, and is supported by the British Film Institute’s Screen Heritage Fund. Showcasing CIFA’s newly acquired Hong Kong film collection, the programme features thirteen screenings accompanied by post-screening Q&As or panel discussions, presented in art-house and independent cinemas, community venues, and university campuses across the UK. 

 

Bringing together a selection of short and feature length films, the programme traces a range of perspectives, from hope to disillusionment, separation and exploration, the struggle to settle, and reflections shaped by global capitalism and xenophobia. These films attend not only to those who have left, but also to those who remain; to building relationships in places that may feel unwelcoming; and to how migration can open paths to self-understanding. Together, they span diasporic experiences from the 1980s to more recent waves of emigration, moving between Hong Kong, the United States, and the United Kingdom. 

 

Waving Kites is curated by CIFA, with the support of the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery Funding.

Visit our website: https://hongkongindiefilm.wordpress.com/