A group of independent filmmakers are set to direct “Tiananmen” (working title), a film paying homage to Hong Kong’s golden age of cinema in a story set against the backdrop of the ‘June 4 political upheaval.’ The project will likely stir a controversy as both the word Tiananmen and the June 4 date are taboo in the People’s Republic of China (mainland China) — they are reminders of the student-led pro-democracy movement that was brutally put down 35 years ago by the People’s Liberation Army in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Estimates of the death toll range from several hundred to over a thousand.
The filmmakers say that their project, currently at development stage, is set in 1989 when the Hong Kong economy was booming and when, for a while at least, there was hope that Western-style democracy might take hold in mainland China. That hope briefly eased concerns about the handover of the territory from Britain to China in 1997. Variety has not been able to verify the identities of the filmmaking collective as its members have so far only used pseudonyms and email communications.
They describe themselves as “creatives [who] all have IMDB profiles on smaller films – as director, producer and scriptwriter.” “We are a collective[..
] who are fans of 1970s and 1980s Hong Kong cinema. Most of us have connections to the city, either through family or have lived there at some point,” they added. “The story is told through the eyes of a 20-something British DJ.
