Anson Mak: The Beauty of Days Past

“The images you see [on film] aren’t the same as what you’d see in real life . . . it most certainly involves emotions, memories, and your own experience.”

Anson Mak


In this interview, Hong Kong artist Anson Mak shares her love of Super 8 filmmaking, the many turns of her creative journey, and the significance of filming documentary works.

Mak’s documentaries may be rooted in reality, but they are permeated with poetry. Their interwoven text and images not only narrate the artist’s relationship to Hong Kong, but also borrow the stories of others to document the beauty of days past.

When she began creating video and sound art in the early 1990s, Mak focused her earliest works on gender and sexual orientation. But after a major illness in 1998, she shifted the focus to herself, contemplating the relationship between the individual and the city. Her works frequently centre on Hong Kong in flux, covering subjects like the redevelopment of her Kwun Tong neighbourhood, musicians who occupy industrial buildings, and the Hungry Ghost Festival.

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Video Transcript : Anson Mak: The Beauty of Days Past