Hong Kong coming-of-age documentary pulled from Italy film festival amid privacy row

A controversial coming-of-age documentary has been pulled from an Italian film festival after two of its subjects protested the screening over privacy concerns.

A screening of “To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self” in 2022. Screenshot: Ying Wa Girls’ School, via YouTube.

Golden Scene, the film’s distributor, said To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self will not be screened at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, local media reported on Sunday.

The documentary no longer appears on a list of screenings on the festival’s website.

An award-winning documentary that tracked the lives of six Ying Wa Girls’ School students over the course of a decade from 2011, the movie was axed from cinemas in 2023 after one of the students featured – surnamed Wong – said she did not consent to public screenings.

The drama sparked a heated debate over documentary ethics, which was reignited last week after Wong – and a second film subject surnamed Sheh – objected to the Italian screening.

Ying Wa Girls’ School in Mid-Levels. Photo: Ying Wa Girls’ School.

Director Mabel Cheung and her production team issued an open letter on Thursday night as the controversy snowballed, after Ying Wa Girls’ School – which commissioned the documentary as part of a fundraising effort – issued a statement earlier that day that it had not approved the screening in Italy.

Cheung accused the school of lying, saying that the principal never opposed the screening during a meeting two months ago.

The director said she was aware that Wong did not agree to the screening, and that her team edited her parts out of the film. But they did not expect a second student to express disagreement.

In a Thursday statement, Golden Scene corroborated Cheung’s account about a meeting with the school’s principal earlier this year and said the school’s claims were false.

The trailer of “To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self.” Screenshot: Ying Wa Girls’ School.

HKFP has reached out to Golden Scene and the Far East Film Festival for comment.

In 2021, ahead of a fundraising premiere, Ying Wa Girls’ School described the film as a “riveting showcase of the trials and tribulations, the dreams and aspirations, and the memories and friendships made during adolescence and one that surely can’t be missed.”

The documentary won best film at the Hong Kong Film Awards in April 2023, two months after it was pulled from cinemas when Wong published a long letter in a media outlet saying she had opposed the film’s public screening “from the very beginning.”

After news emerged last week that the film was scheduled for a screening in Italy, Wong told media that she was not consulted about it and that she remained opposed. Sheh also reportedly said she had told Ying Wa Girls’ School that she objected to the screening plan in January.