Blok Party
Sunday 23 August 2025 – Clockenflap, Y2K, SCANNOW X SOOOP present The Media Room at Shek Kip Mei’s Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre. Alongside other highlights at the fifth edition of HK’s beloved Blok Party, including a full-day DJ lineup, marketplace, and treasure hunt, The Media Rom showcases a nine-hour curation of local and international films that span mediums: the selection features short animations, music videos, experimental films, features, and Q&As.
Programme
Cycles & Starlight: Short Experimental Animation
Serene | Leslie Tsui | 2025
Sparkling Fountain | Jess Lau | 2021
Mirrors in the Sky | Sophie Colfer | 2024
The Cave with a Wheeze | Jess Lau | 2021
A Visualization of a Cut | Claudia Munksgaard-Palmqvist | 2024
Hand | Tsz-Wing Ho | 2021
A selection of short experimental 2D and mixed-media animation and installation by HK and international artists depicting cycles, memories, and glittering starlight. This screening features two films by HK filmmaker Jess Lau, who experiments with the distinctiveness and malleability of each medium she works in, and contemplates themes of time and undoing: with the disintegration of thread in Sparkling Fountain, and the erasure of charcoal linework in The Cave with a Wheeze.
COLA Animation Selection
With Each Passing Day… | Emanuel Nevado | 2024
AHEAD | Ala Nunu | 2019
Telsche | Sophie Colfer, Ala Nunu | 2023
Ice Merchants | Joao Gonzalez | 2022
A selection of short animated films by COLA Animation, including the new film by Emanuel Nevado, a stop-motion animation filmmaker best known for his work at Aardman on Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit, and Shaun the Sheep, amongst others. The screening also features two other more abstract COLA Animation short films, AHEAD and Telsche, as well as the 2023 Oscar-nominated short film Ice Merchants.
Relentless Melt No. 40: Experimental Animation
Wanderers | Muhammad Mustefa Bukhari | 2025
No Man's Land | Wu Zeyang, Tmoi Zhang, Klee Cao, Jonathan Chan Pok Him | 2025
States of Matter | Marvin Hauck | 2024
Soil | Hong Yina, Zhou Yiwei, Hong Shengtao, Gao Joyce | 2025
Spark | Chu Man Ching, Chung Yu Yin, Lee Wing Yee, Tang Chi Wai | 2025
Textura Vitae | Li Junqing, Wang Ziqi, Ou Lan, Sit Sin Wun | 2025
Vivid | Lee Lok Yiu, Wong Kai Yiu, Wu Tsz Ying | 2025
Tram | Jonathan Chan Pok Him, Wu Zeyang | 2025
A selection of recent HK experimental animation curated by Max Hattler for Relentless Melt, a HK-based society for abstract and experimental moving image that has presented screenings at festivals and events around the world. Max Hattler is an abstract animator and professor at the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong.
Likewise Selection: HK Short Skate Docs & More
BOOKENDING EACH FILM: Likewise x AAGFF Teasers
Exploring Hong Kong’s Crustiest Spots with Mikey Silva | Ollie Rodgers | 2021
Catching Up with Margie Didal in Hong Kong | Gemma Harrad, Ollie Rodgers | 2024
A selection of short documentaries about HK skate culture, alongside more recent work, by Likewise, an independent media platform and online magazine dedicated to documenting arts and culture in Hong Kong and Asia through videos and articles that capture the grit, energy, and contrasts of the city. Over the past five years, Likewise has built a community both online and offline, attracting a younger generation of like-minded creatives comprising artists, musicians, and skaters.
Join filmmakers Ollie Rodgers and Gemma Harrad for a short Q&A after the screening.
Music Videos
Max Cooper — Pulse at the Centre of Being | Tsz-Wing Ho | 2021
Timfaye — Sunflowers | Janice Ng | 2022
Cehryl — goodnight, don't wait | Oliver Chen | 2024
Reason and Impulse — Disappear | Ala Nunu | 2024
Gavriela — Creatures | Rani Messias | 2018
The Velvet Underground — After Hours | Oliver Chen | 2015
Reuben James — Own Thing | Gemma Harrad | 2025
A selection of music videos by local and international filmmakers, spanning animation and live action, including HK animator Tsz-Wing Ho's hypnotic visuals for Max Cooper, as well as recent releases by local filmmakers Oliver Chen and Gemma Harrad for Cehryl and Reuben James. Expect whimsical worlds, mixed mediums, and funky grooves.
Join filmmakers Oliver Chen and Gemma Harrad for a short Q&A after the screening.
Short Films 1
Mindfulness | Leslie Tsui | 2021
L' Ombre Des Papillons | Sofia El Khyari | 2022
Hey Pretties | Yoyo Yu | 2023
Microwave | Clovis Wong | 2024
Neon Waltz | Jerry Loo | 2025
Slow Light | Kijek/Adamski | 2022
A selection of short animated films by local and international animators, including a poignant depiction of the life of Master Wong, a HK neon sign-maker, and his journey from apprentice to master, as well as the tale of a boy born with eyes so dense it takes seven years for light to travel through his retinas, leaving him permanently stuck in the past.
Short Films 2
Crushed Coconut | Hou Lam Tsui | 2025
Uapé | Rani Messias | 2023
Eastern Margins Pres. Respect Our Elders | Thierry Phung | 2021
Road to Margins United | Sophie Yau Billington | 2023
Mba'e Kuaa - MONOM & Guarani Kaiowá | Rani Messias
Infidelix: Rap Music From Houston to Berlin | Alex Macek, Sophie Colfer | 2015
From HK artist Hou Lam Tsui's record of fragmented impressions made during her residency in Thailand, to Eastern Margins' s meditations on ancestral cultural wisdom, collected in a montage of crowdsourced footage from East & South-East Asia and its diaspora, Short Films 2 presents documentary and diary, centred around music, community, and the footprints we leave behind.
This screening also features work by filmmaker Rani Messias's immersive experiments that bring to life the forms and voices of Brazilian and Ecuadorian Amazonian communities. Two short docs — one on Berlin street rapper INFIDELIX and the other a closer look at the label Eastern Margins and its celebration of alternative Asian culture — close the set.
Feature Film: Nothing Really Happened
-Nothing Really Happened | Mufasa Yu | 2025 | FEAT. MUSIC BY CLAVE
Nothing Really Happened explores how the language of film, as a time-based medium, resonates with our tangible reality. Images rearrange themselves spontaneously towards chaos and reunion, until they no longer move nor rest, appear nor dissolve. Textured bodies and objects blend into surrealism, immersing the viewer in the film's haunting visuals and hypnotic soundscapes that reflect on structures of time and life. We see everything, yet nothing, while experiencing it all, all at once.
Featuring original music by HK band Clave that blends ambient, post-rock, electronic music, and trip hop, this is not one to be missed.
Feature Film: The Perks of Being Wild
-The Perks of Being Wild | Benson Koo | 2024
A debut feature from Wave Pictures by HK artist Benson Koo, The Perks of Being Wild is set in summer in Cheung Chau, a happy wonderland for children. Three local Cheung Chau kids and a dog break into the houses while many local residents are travelling or leaving Hong Kong for good. While having fun, the journeys also impart some unexpected lessons about the secrets of the adult world. When the summer is soon over, the trio is destined to depart at the cruel crossroads of youth.
Join filmmaker Benson Koo for a short Q&A after the screening.
Episode Preview: Notes From the Underground
-Notes from the Underground | Jake Morton | 2025
Notes from the Underground (NFU) is an episodic travel series that examines how British-origin dance music culture has been adapted by DJs, producers, promoters and cultural agents throughout Asia. NFU highlights and raises the profile of innovative creators around the world and acts as a cultural record in dance music history. This screening is a preview of the Hong Kong episode.
Join filmmaker Jake Morton and DJ Abby Yuen (Just Bee) for a short Q&A after the screening.
Catching Up with Margie Didal in Hong Kong | Gemma Harrad, Ollie Rodgers | 2024
Panel Highlights
Likewise: Ollie Rodgers and Gemma Harrad
Could you introduce yourselves and discuss how Likewise came about, what its core concept is, and the breadth of the work you do.
Ollie [Likewise]:
We created Likewise as a creative outlet to keep ourselves excited filming our own videos and projects, just a way to feature stories and people that we’re interested in and people that deserve a voice and wider audience. I think we’re just interested in a lot of different people and what they’re doing, people that are pushing their craft.
Gemma [Likewise]:
We were wanting a space to publish ideas that we were interested in, and we did it in a format of what a zine would be, so kind of do-it-yourself and self-published. That’s at the core of what Likewise is.
It’s raw, it’s an online magazine, and we were just pursuing stories that we felt were not given the attention they deserved.
Ollie [Likewise]:
And also shooting and editing it in a fun, playful way that’s professional, not taking anything too seriously. And then it just kind of grew over the years into more of a community, opportunities to do different music events and skate events and showcase some more of the alternate side of culture, and also some commissioned work as well. It grew into its own thing after the early two years of just making little documentaries.
There is something that you said before, Ollie, about Likewise being dedicated to capturing the grit, energy, and contrasts of Hong Kong. Today, we bookended your skating docs with recent work you both produced for the Asian Avant Garde Film Festival. And speaking of contrasts, you can feel it. There is something really delicate and beautiful and slow about the teasers, compared to your documentaries, which are fast and loud, with skaters belting down crusty roads. I’d be curious to hear more about your take on the contrasts of Hong Kong, especially through the lens of your filmmaking.
Gemma [Likewise]:
We have such different voices, but also have the shared voice together. I think the softness comes from my background in the arts and how I integrate with the city, how I see the city, because it’s such a harsh routine and intense place at times, and I'm trying to find my space within that. But contrasted with how you see it:
It’s like you’re tapping straight into the electricity, and I feel like the people in the skate scene, or the people that you’re interested in, always have this kind of vibrancy around them that I think is a direct reflection of Hong Kong as well.
And with Likewise, we’re always trying to find how can we blend the contrasts, because Hong Kong is really chaotic and it is such a vast, intense place, but there’s also a lot of nature and reflection and stillness.
Audience Question: How much of your documentaries do you do pre-production on, or do you just go into it?
Ollie [Likewise]:
For the Margie video, I planned out just a route, like start here and then walk around this… Because I enjoy capturing dialogue, and walking interviews are really fascinating to me because people… skaters, especially. You sit a skater down, put a tripod there, they’re gonna get all weird and not say much, but you have them walking around…
I think a lot of creatives and people in general when walking and talking say completely different stuff and they’re more comfortable.
It makes editing a little harder!
Audience Comment: Or more fun!
Ollie [Likewise]:
True! Yeah, definitely fun, because in the background of the shots you can see little fun moments, but you have to follow the trail in a way. There are a bunch of jump cuts and we need all the B-roll to put it together.
And I think also in terms of production, if you have a big crew, certain people can be a bit intimidated. So with Margie, especially, I don’t know her that well, we were only able to have three hours with her, so it was literally us and one other friend, who was helping hold our bags, walking around, and I think she really opened up and felt comfortable because it was just the two of us. We got to know her a bit before, and then it was just super open and relaxed for the whole interview, which was nice, because it was a small crew.
AAGFF Teasers | Gemma Harrad, Ollie Rodgers | 2025
And also in terms of production, I want to ask a bit more about your process in making the teasers for AAGFF. How did this commission come about, and what was the concept and process by which you made the films?
Gemma [Likewise]:
With AAGFF, it was nice to just think about the concept in a really abstract way, and experiment with playing with this technique with a high-speed camera. So we were given the brief of the festival, and the theme was time.
And so: how can we bend and manipulate time, but do it within a Hong Kong context?
So I guess we had more of a plan, more intention, still relatively loose because we wanted time to play and experiment and see what we make. But we were working with our friend, who has this super slow-motion camera, and he was helping to guide the process as well, because you have to really adapt your way of shooting to the camera. Everything is slowed down. You’re getting a slow-motion result, and you have to be so patient. Which is also just fun to do.
Ollie [Likewise]:
Yeah, that was nice. We knew that we were going to do the event recap for the event, and then they’re like, oh, you could also do three teasers, and we were totally down to do that because we could be more creative with shooting around Hong Kong. And then the theme was: time will tell. So yeah, slow down time, use this crazy camera, and you have the bird market…
It was kind of scary getting chased by a bunch of pigeons.
Speaking of scary, I wanted to ask: what are some of the scariest moments you’ve had while shooting the skate docs? Because the first shot is basically him crashing into a bus, right?
Ollie [Likewise]:
Yeah, well that guy… I love filming people like him. He’s a very, I guess you would say, like a hesh, gnarly skater. Full throttle, full commitment. He says in the video, “high risk, high reward"“. So filming someone like him is a very interesting, spontaneous experience. So like, him and Xander, they’re kind of downhill skaters, whereas if you’re filming a technical skater, who does a lot of flippy, technical things, it’s completely different, it takes a long time for them to warm up. With Mikey, he’s just… Yeah, it’s definitely super scary. But with that type of skateboarding, the more you think about it, the more you’re gonna put yourself at risk, and you get your mind to play tricks on you and you’re not gonna go at 100% and then you’ll mess up. Whereas him, he’s like, just do it. Don’t think about it. And then you’ll black out during the trick and then you’ll land and get away with it.
But I think during that filming, one of the weirdest things was in the second last clip. It was in Sai Kung in a pretty residential area, and yeah, skateboarding is loud, but as a skateboarder you’re like, one more, we’re trying to get this, and someone was throwing eggs from their window because they wanted us to stop. It was like 11:30 at night.
Did they get you?
Ollie [Likewise]:
They didn’t actually get us, but very close. And then they started throwing batteries. So they were like, okay. We have two, three minutes. And then eventually he got his kid to shout, “please, stop skateboarding! Please!” And that made us stop skateboarding. That made us leave. And we got the clip in the end. But yeah, like, throwing batteries? Hong Kong is so tight-knit, there are so many residents, so it’s very difficult to film in the streets, which is why not many people do, because it’s just too stressful.
Audience Question: What is the dream project?
Ollie [Likewise]:
I always wanted to film a video on Christopher Doyle: that would be cool, since he’s in Hong Kong. And we wanted to do one on Greg Girard next time he comes to Hong Kong.
Gemma [Likewise]:
We were also talking about doing the Plumber King documentary, but he’s quite an elusive guy.
Who’s the Plumber King?
Gemma [Likewise]:
So he is a street artist. But by trade, he is a plumber by day. But he has the most amazing calligraphy style, and the way that he promotes himself is by painting his phone number around the city. I’m sure you will have seen it everywhere, because every nook and cranny, the most random, secluded hike. You’ll find his work plastered everywhere. It’d be great just to talk to him, because he’s also such a Hong Kong character and I feel like our documentary pieces focus more on artists or creatives of Hong Kong. They’re always so interesting and very individual and eccentric in a beautiful way.
Moderated by Sophie Colfer.
Reuben James — Own Thing | Gemma Harrad | 2025
Panel Highlights
Music Videos: Gemma Harrad and Oliver Chen
What is your approach to pre-production and editing when it comes to music videos?
Gemma [Own Thing]:
So to give a bit of context, I was also helping on [Oliver’s video, goodnight, don’t wait]. It’s really nice to have insights into both those processes for at least your Hong Kong music video and your New York one. I feel like, for me, the whole video came together in the edit. Whereas I feel like yours was really intentional.
And I loved how simple the idea was, and I think you had more of an emphasis on pre-production than me, because when it came to edit, you already knew the flow of things. And it was really easy to piece together. Whereas mine was… there was a seed of an idea, but also time pressure, because the artist lives in London and is always here for a short period of time, and he’s also a very spontaneous person. So when you are able to nail him down, you know that you have to get everything.
Oliver [goodnight, don’t wait; After Hours]:
It’s crazy that you did it in a day.
You did it in a day? That’s crazy. How big was the team?
I think our crew was like five people. Also, it was just friends. It’s a matter of getting people everywhere and shuffling people around. It was very, very low budget; basically budget to cover transport, food. So. yeah, it’s reliant on friends to come together and help each other and make something.
Speaking of collaboration, music videos by their nature are creatively collaborative, in terms of working with the music artist. So I want to ask about how collaborative the process was. How did your ideas come to you, and how much of the creative vision was a negotiation or conversation between you and the music artist?
Oliver [goodnight, don’t wait; After Hours]:
So that one [After Hours]; I made that when I was nineteen, so it’s really fortunate that I met Cehryl and she had watched that when she was young. So when she found out that it was me, it was pretty easy to chat about some art direction, and then she just trusted me quite a bit. So that one was a lot more smooth.
Audience question: How is it watching something you made ten years ago?
Oliver [goodnight, don’t wait; After Hours]:
A little bit embarrassing. Obviously, it’s just so literal. It was a competition actually. I had like six days to do everything, but I took every line so literally, so like: ‘closing the door.’ But I feel that the cool part is seeing that there was still a lot of intention back then, at least for the visual part. And I never actually got to watch it with a group of people, because it was all online. So yeah, it’s a different feeling watching it with people.
Gemma: How do you think you’ve evolved since then and now, if you were to compare your journey from Velvet Underground to Cehryl’s video?
Oliver [goodnight, don’t wait; After Hours]:
I think definitely just more intention behind everything, but visually, I don’t actually think that much, right? Like, I feel like visual’s so innate, at least in my experience, that it’s just about the thought behind how to help the song out in a way. So like, Velvet Underground, when I did that. I’d actually never listened to them. So I had no idea what their actual band sounded like. So my only reference was this song that was very different, right? And I think they liked that contrast of people interpreting them to be a lot darker, and then I made this really happy piece.
Gemma: I’d like to hear more about your whole process behind Cehyrl’s video. So the one take idea, your use of blocking, and also why you chose the karaoke as another visual theme?
Oliver [goodnight, don’t wait; After Hours]:
Being her friend, I got to know the emotional intention behind the song, like there’s a lot of nostalgia during that period for her and why she made that song. And her song is very world-building to me. It’s something that I wouldn’t focus on completely, and if I’m playing it in the background, I feel like I’m surrounded by it, hugged by it, so then I wanted to make a space, where people felt comfortable, and then one thing I was trying to veer away from was what was the trend.
So the trend these days is like, really flashy. I feel like it’s getting faster and faster, especially the more hype ones, and we’re like, what if we just made a screensaver?
I feel like most people watch music videos in the background. So why not just make a screensaver and then go into this world of nostalgia, like karaoke. And it was fun making the karaoke, the research. We got to watch a lot, like there was early 90s, 80s karaoke, and they’re so cheesy, but they’re great. They’re so good. They’re so well planned. And keeping it in one take just felt really refreshing to me.
So I wanted to ask also about the context of music videos in Hong Kong. We see a little square of Hong Kong through the window in your [Oliver’s] music video. As a city, Hong Kong is filled with such unique architecture and terrain, and vibrant colours, and there is so much depth and height in every frame you observe of the city, which really comes out in your [Gemma’s] video. You’re using a lot of low angles and wide lenses to accommodate, it seems to me, the breadth and depth of the city. Can you discuss your process in terms of location scouting and in terms of shooting the cityscapes of Hong Kong?
Gemma [Own Thing]:
The city and the locations were a huge part of our attention. It was really good to collaborate with my friend, who is an architect and she is just a natural location scout. She’s always exploring. So I really loved working with her, because it was just fun as well, tracing all of these places and trying to make and create something out of these locations.
We were mostly looking for locations that felt new and fresh to us. So where we were going were more on the outskirts and the New Territories, exploring public estates, an orchid farm, and also a village as well.
Moderated by Sophie Colfer.
Cehryl — goodnight, don't wait | Oliver Chen | 2024
Credits
Panelists: Gemma Harrad / Ollie Rodgers / Oliver Chen / Benson Koo / Jake Morton / Abby Yuen
Panel Moderator: Sophie Colfer
Trailer Video and Site Image Credits: Leslie Tsui / Jess Lau / Sophie Colfer / Claudia Munksgaard-Palmqvist / Tsz-Wing Ho / Emanuel Nevado / Ala Nunu / Joao Gonzalez / Muhammad Mustefa Bukhari /Wu Zeyang / Tmoi Zhang / Klee Cao / Jonathan Chan Pok Him / Marvin Hauck / Hong Yina / Zhou Yiwei / Hong Shengtao / Gao Joyce / Chu Man Ching, Chung Yu Yin / Lee Wing Yee / Tang Chi Wai / Li Junqing / Wang Ziqi / Ou Lan /Sit Sin Wun / Lee Lok Yiu / Wong Kai Yiu /Wu Tsz Ying / Jonathan Chan Pok Him / Wu Zeyang / Ollie Rodgers / Gemma Harrad / Janice Ng / Oliver Chen / Rani Messias / Leslie Tsui / Sofia El Khyari / Yoyo Yu / Clovis Wong / Jerry Loo / Kijek/Adamski / Hou Lam Tsui / Rani Messias / Thierry Phung / Sophie Yau Billington / Alex Macek / Mufasa Yu / Benson Koo / Jake Morton
Trailer Music: Reason and Impulse
Event Photographer: Jake Morton
Poster: Isatisse
Curator: Sophie Colfer
With Thanks to Kelvin Li, Max Hattler, Nathan Cornish, COLA Animation, and Relentless Melt
Venue: Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre
Powered by: Clockenflap / Y2K / SCANNOW / SOOOP