Hong Kong Student Film “Crushing” Celebrates 10th Film Festival Selection
This year, a group of Hong Kong teenage filmmakers participated in the first professional filmmaking program from Babel Film Workshop, and created a coming-of-age short film, Crushing, which has now been selected for screening at 10 film festivals worldwide.
Directed by Maya Barreto and Ema Poposka, with a crew of predominantly female filmmakers, Crushing tells the story of Iris, a teenage girl who meets her online friend and crush for the first time. The film portrays the social anxiety a teenager feels as she transitions from an online to an in-person relationship, and explores LGBTQ+ themes in a Hong Kong context.
“The biggest message of the film is to trust your friends, trust yourself, put yourself out there, and don’t be afraid of your true self,” said directors Barreto and Poposka. “If you love yourself, your friends will love you as well.”
At the Directed By Women Turkey film festival, Crushing was selected as a Finalist in its Youth View Short Category. It was also selected as the Hong Kong representative at the 100 Films Retreat, which hosts Academy Award nomination qualifying theatrical screenings in California. Crushing’s lead actress, Giselle Ching, has been nominated for Best International Actress at the Científica Webseries & Film Festival in Peru. In total, Crushing has reached audiences in 6 countries, including Thailand, New Delhi and Nigeria.
Crushing was created through the new Short Film Lab program from Babel Film Workshop, Hong Kong’s leading film and media arts education provider. The program aims to create an opportunity for teenager filmmakers to gain experience on a professional film set, which is run by students under guidance from filmmaker-teachers. For this film, students additionally fundraised a budget of HK $7,000, which went to locations, production design, meals and transportation.
After the success of Crushing, a new cohort of teenage filmmakers have begun pre-production on the next Short Film Lab project, a mystery film featuring a cast of Hong Kong teenagers, and have begun fundraising for their project. Interested students can enroll to take part in the coming production and post-production terms.
Crushing Cast & Crew
Directed by: Maya Barreto, Ema Poposka
Written by: Maya Barreto, Sytric Chan, Ema Poposka, Anton Szeto
Story by: Maya Barreto
Producers: Jeremy Hung, Matthew Leung
Executive Producers: Stephan Gelinsky, Zoran Poposki
Starring: Giselle Ching, Emilia Kate Oliver, Hannah Katy Liu
Cinematography by: Sytric Chan, Chloe Lam
Production Design by: Celine Rusli, Xilin Yap
Edited by: Sytric Chan, Ema Poposka, Celine Rusli
Sound Design by: Sytric Chan, Celine Rusli
Color Grading by: Sytric Chan, Celine Rusli
Production Assistants: Vivien Jagmag, Mara Williams