Privacy row in student docu

Renowned director Mabel Cheung Yuen-ting yesterday suspended public screening of her controversial documentary To My Nineteen-year-old Self amid complaints of privacy invasion by star cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze and two of the students featured in it.

Lee had called on people not to watch the 136-minute documentary, which follows six secondary school students from Cheung's alma mater, Ying Wa Girls' School, over a decade to witness the agony and ecstasy of growing up during a turbulent period in Hong Kong and tell their personal journeys of self-discovery.

Lee and two of the girls who feature in the film said Cheung and her crew did not get their consent before public screening and included an interview clip with Lee.

Cheung apologized after attending an event yesterday.

But she said all the six girls, not including Lee, had agreed to the film's public screening, as well as taking part in film festivals, adding that Wong Cheuk-ling, one of the two girls who complained to the media, had come to the private screening with her family.

"I heard from the school recently that Wong's father told the school she had calmed down, so I found it's an appropriate time to have public screenings, which started a few days ago," Cheung said.

A former principal of the school, Ruth Lee Shek Yuk-yu, said on its Facebook page yesterday that she should bear the responsibility for proposing to make the documentary.

"I feel so sorry that my decision has created a hard time for the school and students," she said.

Meanwhile, cycling star Lee said on her Facebook page that she was notified of her appearance in the documentary, which was commissioned by Ying Wa Girls' School.

She recalled the interview in January 2016 but claimed she couldn't recognize Cheung at the scene, thinking she was just a random reporter asking "weird questions."

"Since the premiere of the documentary, I couldn't convince myself I forgot that I have approved the film to include my interview? I have always been cautious about appearing in public," Lee said.

"It's not against the law, but is it appropriate? It should have been much better if we could have known about the appearance beforehand."

She urged the public not to watch the documentary, and asked them not to ask her about it.

"I won't watch it and I won't recommend you to watch," Lee said.

Earlier, writing in a 10,000-word article published on Ming Pao Weekly, one of the girls, Wong, said she and other girls had tried their best to oppose the public screening.

"Even though my understanding at the beginning is only a private screening in school, I worried if I could afford all of the discussion after the documentary went public," she said.

She knew only that the documentary was for fund-raising purposes.

Despite Wong and other girls requesting to opt out, Cheung refused and said the documentary would not be able to finish if everyone opted out.

Wong said only one girl had successfully quit shooting in secondary five, as she cried for five years until the crew agreed with her to quit shooting.

Wong said: "The school and the director have been trying my patience. I had no choice, and was forced to give way, but did the school and the director ever give way?"

A Ying Wa alumna, Ng, said she and other students had never heard that the documentary would be screened publicly.

She felt the documentary had some flaws when she first watched the private screening organized by the school's alumni association in October.

"I think Cheung's narrative in the film is quite subjective, while I think the school's involvement in the production was too late, which had bypassed the opposing opinion from schoolmates," Ng said, adding that she welcomed that the documentary had suspended public screening.

An award-winning director, Cheung is noted for her famous works, including An Autumn's Tale in 1988 featuring Chow Yun-fat and Cherie Chung Chor-hung.

The documentary on Ying Wa won Best Film in last year's Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award after having been postponed for five years.