The first local director I met in Macau was Vincent Hoi. I went to his place and discovered a self-made filmmaker, a man whose passion had led him to watch hundreds of pirated DVDs, discovering masters such as Tarkovsky, Antonioni and Kieslowski before he decided to start shooting his own movies.
One thing I never forgot about that meeting was when Vincent told me: “We can’t wait for the government to make movies”.
It is true that no artist should wait for the government to create. Many artists have created in opposition to politics and, many times, against their own contemporary civil society. They did it. It is possible.
Nevertheless, it obviously takes a lot of money to put a semi-professional film together, and local filmmakers do need help to finance their projects, either from the Executive or big private companies. There is no cinema industry here in Macau, no way of making a film profitable and, having said this, no way to make a movie without it being subsidised. People working in cinema also need to put food on the table.
The Macau Cultural Affairs Bureau has just launched the first financial support programme for feature films. It is a major step, even if one can point out some imperfections in it. For now we need to give it a try and hope for the best.
Locally, some associations and companies are doing a good job, as we explore in this issue. And there is more that we have covered in our previous issues: the film 'The Last Time I Saw Macau', by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Guerra da Mata, being screened in festivals around the world; Tracy Choi and her films enchanting audiences at the Macao Indies competition; Icon Communications, with names such as António Caetano Faria doing their best to push video-making quality in Macau; and initiatives such as Video Art For All. There’s also the AniMacao festival coming this month, and The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival, that our company founded two years ago and which is coming back next year, with many writers and, as usual, some good films and filmmakers.
Macau has a fascinating past and an uncertain though exciting future. Both are just waiting to be discovered by storytellers carrying cameras and a desire to portray this unique city. May they make it happen.
P.S. Taking on the role of Editor-in-Chief of Macau CLOSER is a big challenge I have decided to embrace, committing myself to do the best I can, with all the support I know I’ll get from the wonderful team I work with. In this issue you can find a few new sections in the magazine. Starting from now, CLOSER will have monthly opinion columns on Design, Food, Real Estate and Current Affairs. We’re also adding a Q&A section to close all our issues, starting this month with artist James Chu. More will come in the future, in both our printed and online versions, and make sure you check out our new-look website www.macaucloser.com. Stick around. You won’t regret it.
