Liberatum Hong Kong Saturday - STORIES ON SCREEN Panel (Nansun Shi, Paul Schrader, Daniel Wu and Mike Figgis)

I'm even more behind on my blogging!!!  I'm back in HK and its been non-stop events (and the other work that keeps me from having the time to blog!)

Today I went to Wong Chuk Hang to attend "Liberatum Hong Kong",  the HK stop of a group that calls itself an "international cultural diplomacy organization."  They planned three days of seminars and exhibitions this weekend in Hong Kong ( click for details).   I should note that the entire HK event is sponsored by Carrera

I couldn't attend the opening day's events (the highlight of which was a seminar with Khalil Fong, William Orbit and Pharrell Williams).

But I was able to go to the Saturday afternoon session earlier today.  I first attended a Q & A and reading by Nobel Laureate Sir V.S. Naipaul.   After that was the highlight -  a panel featuring Nansun Shi, Paul Schrader, Daniel Wu and Mike Figgis on Storytelling in New Media. 

Here's some of my pics (and a few video clips I took) -

Sir V.S. read from his newer book 'The Masque of Africa'.  He's almost 80 but flew out to HK for this event apparently.

Before his panel could start, Daniel had to go through the ritual of the ludicrously over abundant mics...

That's Paul Schrader on the left.  He has worked as a writer with Martin Scorsese on some monumental films like 'Raging Bull' and 'Taxi Driver'.   Next to him is Mike Figgis,  writer and director of 'Leaving Las Vegas' (for which he was nominated for an Oscar).

Nansun Shi is a well known name in Hong Kong,  she's a prolific producer and the wife of Tsui Hark.

Daniel may not be as accomplished a director or producer as his panelmates, but he definitely brought a unique POV as he is several decades younger than the other guys and therefore his POV on 'new media' was a bit different.

I noticed a Pharrell snuck in after the panel started and watched from the back corner.  (apologies to whoever that is sitting in front of him)

Here's a couple clips I took and posted on Viddy -

Video 1 -

Video 2 -

Desmond stopped for a photo op at the backdrop.

After the panel Pharrell came up to say hi to Daniel and the other panelists.

Cool!

Interesting event.... unfortunately only an hour long.  I think I'd rather have seen in depth interviews each each panelist separately....  by the time you split up the time by four speakers, each panelist only gets a few minutes to speak each and the topics jump around too much from speaker to speaker.   Still thanks to Carrera and Lane Crawford and the other sponsors for supporting the event.

I'll post up some photos from the Wing Shya photo exhibition that was held upstairs in a second blog (tomorrow hopefully???)