Modern Films Production

Director Roger Garcia drew inspiration from Close to Our Hearts, a script he wrote after returning to Hong Kong from the United Kingdom in 1977. Although the project never materialised because of a lack of funding and resources, Garcia adapted its elements—character lines, location shots, references to other films, portraits of a harpist—for this essay film, which traces a disintegrating relationship between a Chinese musician and his English wife, a photographer. Ruminating on the liminal space between text and image, Garcia seeks new ways of looking at a ceaselessly evolving city.

HKNY was inspired by Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities. Garcia draws on the concept of in-betweenness to construct a story of an individual (the filmmaker) reflecting on his position between Hong Kong, his birthplace, and New York, where he resides.