Watch and Learn

How might artists and filmmakers reflect on what we learn as consumers of media and as ‘products’ of knowledge systems? How are such messages transmitted, interpreted, and performed in society—could they also become forms of disruption and resistance?

Featuring works made during these artists’ early careers, this programme considers the power of education and media culture and speculates on its role in defining a post-war Asia. In Educational TV (1987), Wong Chi-fai cheekily alludes to the very techniques that certain television programmes have used in promoting bilingual education. In Student Bodies (2019), Ho Rui An delivers a masterful essay film that traces the institutional rise of university education and the establishment of a powerful student class in Asia. Finally, in Incoherence (1994), made when the director was a student at the Korean Academy of Film Arts, recent Academy Award winner Bong Joon-ho wields a razor-sharp satire on Korean society and its ostentatious display of moral education.

The screening will be followed by a talk by Wong Chi-fai and Ho Rui An via video call, moderated by M+ Curator of Moving Image, Chanel Kong. It will be held in Mandarin.