Still hoping for a satisfactory ending

The Best Film award for coming-of-age documentary To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self - featuring six schoolgirls at Ying Wa Girls' School - may be as controversial as the film itself.

If not for the ethics row over the way the schoolgirls- or at least one of them, Ah Ling- had been reportedly pushed to continue with the shooting over the course of those years, To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self would have been a rare and outstanding local production.

In wake of the row, co-director Mabel Cheung Yuen-ting made a public apology.

Most people in Hong Kong have not watched the film because it was pulled from cinemas amid a wave of controversy in February, several days after it was screened publicly.

Nonetheless, many of those who have watched To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self either at cinemas or, previously, at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, were impressed.

For one, the characters are real - their coming-of-age stories are true.

Prior to the award on Sunday, the documentary had also been shown at Taiwan's Golden Horse Film Festival and similar events in the Czech Republic and the UK.

In 2022, it was named best movie by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.

The film itself is fine, and it is a pity that its decade-long production has been surrounded by controversy.

Should the documentary be consigned to the archives forever without ever being given a chance to see the light again? Such a fate would be most unfortunate.

Looking forward, the ethics row must be answered and remedies made to pave the way for To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self to see the light again.

The documentary was initially commissioned by Ying Wa as part of the school's campus development project and was not meant to be shown commercially.

Unless consent is obtained from all sides, everyone involved in the process is expected to respect and adhere to the spirit of the original contract.

That being said, it would be a pity if it could not be screened to a wider audience due to the ethics row.

Could a compromise be negotiated so that all parties - including the schoolgirls and Ying Wa, which commissioned the production in the first place - be adequately compensated?

For example, could there be a new agreement to share the revenues from commercial screenings to make the film available to the general public?

There could well be other solutions too.

After To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self was crowned best film on Sunday, Ying Wa released a statement saying the team had been filming on the principle of consent and knowledge of those filmed and that it was never intended to force film shoots or to shoot in secret.

The school stressed it allowed students to quit during the filming process.

Oops!

By the way, any additional information that could help clarify the situation should be welcome.