Post-event update

NEXUS was a collaborative host at the HKUST 'Diversity = Strength: Film Festival & Student Forum' event series. Our contribution was the screening on 27 October of We Don't Dance for Nothing, at the new Shaw Auditorium. The film was introduced by the director Stefanos TAI, who had recorded a message for us from his home in New York. After the film James led a Q&A session on stage with lead actor Miles SIBLE and Associate Producer Lulu WARD.

Director Stefanos describes the film as a ‘love-letter to Hong Kong’s Filipino domestic workers.’ It is an extraordinary and captivating montage of still photography and dance, equally touching and inspiring. Its motivation came – as Stefanos says – from the way thousands of Filipina Domestic Workers (“helpers”) publicly celebrate their off-days: 

“Walking down these crowded Sunday streets, I asked myself: How can these women, often abused and treated as second class citizens, dance each minute with such zest? How do these unlikely heroes summon so much love, joy, and humanity in the face of enormous struggle? And how have their beauty and passion never been celebrated properly on film?”

We welcomed as our guests to the screening a group of clients from Christian Actions Centre for Refugees, who enjoyed both the film and a picnic lunch in the warm late-October sunshine on one of the lawns of HKUST’s campus overlooking Clear Water Bay. 
 

We Don't Dance for Nothing

We Don’t Dance for Nothing, starring Filipina actors Miles SIBLE and Xyza CADA, is a photo-montage love letter to the Filipina domestic workers of Hong Kong. This visual recreation of true memories shared by this community of 400,000 women follows one woman's plan to run away. Captured on Super-16 amidst the Hong Kong protests, the film blends stills with motion to highlight the passionate street dancing of these marginalized women, and touch upon LGBTQ+ themes, issues of workers' rights, and Hong Kong's changing political landscape.

From Chinese-Greek-American director Stefanos TAI, the film has been described as “La Jetée” meets “La La Land”, and its use of stills vs. motion represent a bold new method of filmmaking: one which invites the viewer to viscerally experience the entrapment felt by these women, and their release into freedom when they dance. Among saturated and staid media coverage of these women, WDDFN paints these heroes beyond their job descriptions, as people full of talent, joy, and grace.

From Asia Society's event article on We Don't Dance for Nothing (2022):

Stefanos TAI is a Greek-Chinese-American director. His works are intensely anthropological, and aim to remind us of a simple idea: we have more in common than sets us apart. He's screened at Tribeca, BAM, Cinequest, DOXA, Woodstock, and Savannah– and he’s received an Impact Doc Award, a Scholastic Gold Key, and the “One to Watch” award from the Asian American Film Festival. He has also directed branded content for the Google Creative Lab and TBWA\ Worldwide. Clients include Breguet, Hennessy, Kipling, Li & Fung, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Miles SIBLE is an up-and-coming Filipina performer in Hong Kong. She has been acting since the age of seven, and prior to her work in films, she has appeared in several drama television shows, musicals, and online ads, and was featured in the Philippines’ ABS-CBN “Star Hunt”. Upon moving to Hong Kong, she was immediately welcomed by several Filipino church choir groups in the city, and WDDFN is her effort to represent her community with pride. Through acting, her goal is to inspire and entertain all kinds of audiences, bringing Asian representation to the big screen.

Xyza CADA is a performer best known for her supporting role in 2019’s “Still Human”, which picked up several accolades at the Hong Kong Film Awards. In the years following, she has been cast in several HK-based and international productions, most recently Lulu Wang’s upcoming Amazon series. Off screen, Xyza has been a champion for the Filipino community in Hong Kong and globally, through her work with causes: EmPowerU, Christian Action, Rise and Raise the Roof: Juan for the Visayas. In her portrayal of Sampa, she brings her experience as a single mother to create a character at once familiar within the DW community, yet illuminative to external audiences of the complex struggles these women face laboring far from home, raising the children of another woman.

About the Diversity = Strength Film Festival & Student Forum: This film festival and student forum, organised by the University’s Community for Enhancing Intercultural Learning Experiences, will showcase Hong Kong’s diversity and the power of multiple points of view. Five films will be shown over a two-week period. Special guests will be invited to speak at the different film screenings. At the half-day forum following the screenings, we will explore the themes of the films and what diversity means to us as individuals and a society. We will also discuss how we can support the learning and well-being outcomes of diverse groups in our society.