Lessons in Dissent

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Lessons in Dissent

Director: Matt Torne
Producer: Matt Torne
Documentary, 84 minutes

In this feature length cinéma vérité style documentary, filmmaker Matt Torne highlights the fragile political state of present day Hong Kong as he follows the story of two boys fighting for democracy in the face of the Chinese Communist Party.

We provided full sound post-production for this feature length documentary.

When the Hong Kong government announces plans to introduce ‘brainwashing’ National Education in 2012, 15 year old schoolboy Joshua Wong launches a campaign group, Scholarism, to force the government to back down. Meanwhile, former classmate, Ma Jai, takes a different approach; he joins a radical pro-democracy political party and consequently is standing trial for participating in illegal protests. Chapter by chapter, Matt Torne takes us through the incredible journey of these two boys as they attempt to re-invigorate a divided and impotent democracy movement, eventually leading to a 120,000 strong sit in, lead by Joshua, surrounding the Hong Kong government offices, demanding a policy u-turn. Will Joshua’s campaign be successful? How will Ma Jai’s trial end?

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