Nennette and Boni (1996) by Claire Denis. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

In four short months, the cinema at M+ has made quite the impression on Hong Kong’s art-house crowd. In some ways, the lack of tourists has enabled the museum’s curators, including in the moving-image department, to better respond to local audiences, in turn helping the young gallery forge an identity. That being said, the scrapping of hotel quarantine requirements since Sept 26 provided a fillip to the team’s morale.  

“Now we can actually engage with the audience,” says Silke Schmickl, the museum’s lead curator for moving image, enthused by the prospect of receiving new and returning visitors. “We’re no longer programming into the void.”

Red Rocket (2021) by Sean Baker. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Schmickl and her co-curators are ready with the cinema’s Autumn 2022 program, offering around 100 screenings between now and December of recent art-house hits, restored classics, documentaries and artist films.

Among the 13 curated programs are Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza and Sean Baker’s Red Rocket — festival favorites from 2021 and each in their way a coming-of-age story set in a meticulously illustrated time and place. Neither got a general release in Hong Kong, but both deserve a big-screen viewing. In the Rediscoveries series, forgotten gems — first films all — by Hong Kong filmmaker Clara Law, Pedro Costa and Nietzchka Keene provide opportunities to see the birth of major international talents. In the Makers and Making series, fashion designers Rei Kawakubo and Martin Margiela and installation artist Christo are profiled.

Walking on Water (2018) documents a project by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

It is, however, the filmmaker spotlights and accompanying gallery series that stand out. To mark the museum’s first anniversary and complement its opening exhibition in the Courtyard Galleries, The Dream of the Museum, Museum Reimagined interrogates M+’s role in creating culture. 

“We always want to have one program responding to our exhibitions,” explains Schmickl. “Beyond the moving image, I find it bold to have a self-reflexive moment. What does it mean in this day and age to build an institution, with the challenges that come with being a space for all kinds of public discourse?” 

She points to the museum’s ability to look into a fragmented past as well as the future, and how its position might be in flux. Memory is a theme in many of the films, and “museums aren’t the only institutions now that keep memories.”

This is Your Museum Speaking, a short animation film for young audiences presented as part of Grand Stair Screenings. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The first filmmakers in the spotlight are French auteur Claire Denis and Filipino activist-artist Nick Deocampo. In Fever Dreams: The Cinema of Claire Denis, 10 of the trailblazing director’s features — including White Material (2009), Trouble Every Day (2001), Beau Travail (1999), Stars at Noon (2022) and Both Sides of the Blade (2022) — as well as several short films demonstrate Denis’s evolving themes. 

“Her interest in the postcolonial, intercultural lived experience is interesting to us. She talks about the other from an insider’s perspective,” Schmickl says. The adjunct Claire Denis: Friends and Inspiration program examines her work with other filmmakers (Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch) as well as her influences.

Schmickl curated a retrospective of Deocampo’s works in Paris last year. Having witnessed major political and social change in the Philippines, the writer, film historian and filmmaker developed an interest in cinema verite. Deocampo’s raw work explores the intersection of gender, sexuality, violence, poverty and politics, and he is one of the Philippines’ most critical voices.

Rei Kawakubo — Renegades (2019). (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The Sex Warriors & the Samurai (1995) by Nick Deocampo. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Now that COVID-19 regulations have been relaxed, Schmickl is hoping some of the key personalities associated with M+’s films program might actually get around to visiting Hong Kong.

“Loosening the quarantine means that some of our guests could be here in person,” she cautiously enthuses. “Nick Deocampo is very flamboyant and a generous speaker, and that energy is hard to translate in online talks,” she adds. “Online talks aren’t going to disappear, but we really can’t wait to use the building more.”