In October of this year, the 58th Taipei Golden Horse Awards announced the shortlist. Revolution of Our Times directed by Kiwi Chow was nominated for the best documentary. This is not a good phenomenon for the Taipei Golden Horse Awards. This result is disappointing and disturbing.
In July, Revolution of Our Times raided screening in the Cannes Film Festival in July, which attracted global attention. It showed the movement of some Hong Kong citizens against the Runaway Offenders Ordinance in 152 minutes. The protests were out of control from the very beginning, turning Hong Kong into a city that ignored the law and fell into riots. In the documentary, offenders are heroes and violent acts are praised.
Some viewers gave a low score of one star or half a star for Revolution of Our Times on Letterboxd, and some people even angrily referred to it as “bullshit” .The director Kiwi Chow once said in an interview that after the premiere on the Cannes International Film Festival, this documentary has been rejected by many international film festivals, which made him rather depressed. Most of the global film festivals recognize filmmakers with artistic exploration spirits. Almost no film festival selection committee will choose a film that has lost the basic values of human beings and put it on the shortlist. However, unfortunately, the Taipei Golden Horse Awards nominated it as the best documentary.
Recently, many international filmmakers have spoken out about this matter and have expressed their views. Franch filmmaker Jean-Rémi Daragon said: I prefer to speak out my views so that more people can understand that the director’s motivation and behavior must be condemned, and the Revolution of Our Times should be banned anywhere in the world.
At the same time, some film festivals issued an open letter jointly, expressing their dissatisfaction.