ENTERTAINMENT EXPO 2009 PART 4: HKIFF INTERVIEWS. REALLY?

[if gte mso 9]> Normal/w:View 0/w:Zoom 21/w:HyphenationZone false/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid false/w:IgnoreMixedContent false/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText /w:Compatibility MicrosoftInternetExplorer4/w:BrowserLevel /w:WordDocument <![endif][if gte mso 9]> /w:LatentStyles <![endif][if !mso]> <![endif][if gte mso 10]> <![endif]

Since March 22 nd, I tried (and I’m still trying) to cover 4 of the 9 events of the 5 th edition of the Entertainment Expo Hong Kong:the Asian Film Awards( AFA) ,the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum( HAF) ,the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market  ( FILMART) and the Hong Kong International Film Festival( HKIFF) .

The AFA, HAF& FILMARTare finished already for more than one week, but the HKIFFstill continues until the 13 thof April. Concerning the interviews that I’ve done so far concerning those events, I made 5 interviews and one press conference related to AFA, 5 interviews and one press conference related to HAF, more than 10 interviews + several press conferences related to the FILMART.

Concerning the HKIFF, I shot several ceremonies, presentations and red carpets arrivals ( HKIFF Opening, Sniper premiere, Ashes of Time Redux premiere, Film Workshop exhibition etc…) but I got… ZERO interview!

Actually, for some mysterious reason I got the listing of the attending directors and actors/actresses of the 33 rd HKIFF, only 4 days after the beginning of the festival. And even if I had this list before, most of the people I wanted to interview (Cast & crew from Shinjuku Incident, Night & Fog, Sniper etc. and also Oliver Stone, Kiefer Sutherland etc…)  were actually not doing any interview or just press junkets (and also some “fighting group interviews” before the screenings). 

Anyway, now, all the big names are gone. I can still do interviews, but I don’t think the magazines I’m writing for in France (they are genre oriented: action, thrillers, horror etc…) will be interested about Asian indie dramas or art house movies at all.  

So now the only thing to do is trying to get interviews not through the festival, but by contacting directly some production of distribution companies, and maybe I’ll get some “bankable” materials…

Frédéric Ambroisine (April 3 rd, 2009)