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The Grand External Propaganda 大外宣 machine has begun, and mysterious forces have engaged French director Benoît Lelièvre to make a documentary film called "Spring, Seeing Hong Kong Again" (hereinafter referred to as "SSHKA") to promote Hong Kong and China's image abroad.

3:22 AM · Jun 9, 2022Twitter Web App

Replying to

No one around me, even those in film, has heard of the project. Google returns few results, mainly the same cringey write-up on sloppy newswires, which alleged that the film was well-received at Cannes Film Festival, and that it won Best Documentary at the Prague Film Festival.

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The write-up even mentions

, an actual last-minute addition to the Cannes lineup last year. But "SSHKA" was not an official selection, it only screened at Marché du Film, a pay-to-screen fair which carries over 1,500 films each year. (H/T to expert VH for the info.)

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So, what is the film about? Vanessa McMahon wrote a review on Filmfestivals.com after watching it at Marché du Film. "HK suffered a hard time in 2019 due to the turbulence over the Fuigitive Law..." / "medical aid and nurses from Mainland China.." P.S. Vanessa, spellcheck.

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Some images of the film's publicity found on the website of "Prague Film Festival" (ybcpff.com) were stock photos.

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Unsurprisingly, images on the newswire writeup were easily exposed by a simple reverse image search on Google.

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The "SSHKA" writeup was sent to newswires under the company name of "Star international culture and media". What other films did the company produce? "RIPPLES", a film on Xinjiang, also co-directed by Benoît Lelièvre. Are there Uyghurs dancing in the film? Yes.

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Lelièvre's most recent works on IMDB, in reverse chronological order. He is based in China, and seemed to have made a foray into 大外宣 after "Ripples". Both "SSHKA" and "Ripples" are not on his IMDB. P.S. he was the cinematographer on "Le Laowaï, which sounds like a blast.

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H/T to

who brought it to Canto Twitter's attention. Crayon noticed a popular HK Instagram page with 209K followers (even Agnes Chow and other good people) sharing the film, and asked people to stop liking the post.

Quote Tweet

crayon

@crayonsnotebk

· Jun 7

麻煩大家FC下㩒入去source睇先知話示威者暴徒搞亂社會帶來不便仲要奶共大讚大陸幫香港渡過疫情千幾人都like咗

唔知係被誤導定個page有問題歡迎大家親切問候該page究竟發生咩事

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.

then found out that the account was a political meme page formerly. Is promoting the film a simple mistake, or has the previous page sold the handle to an internal propaganda platform? Our discussion here:

Quote Tweet

K Tse

@ktse852

· Jun 8

有無人知道IG 上面《港。新聞》咩來背景？其實就算分享咩新聞都好，佢個tone 係「so this happened」咁，懶中立。大家可能係睇到留言，就誤以為係好人。連周庭，hkz.global, 1released, jojo_wu 呢啲都有follow 佢。個名仲改得幾蠱惑。Google 彈出黎全部都係啲新聞網站。

Show this thread

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SSHKA has appeared on a select few Chinese sites and media outlets. Sing Tao's Bastille Post basically translated the newswire write-up but added some words like 'democracy' and 'freedom'. Someone gave it a 2-star on Douban. Nobody else on the internet seems to have watched it.

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How to fake a screening of a film at a festival? Or rather, how to fake a film festival? LPT: DO NOT copy images that appear on the first page on Google when you search the venue's name. Corroborating with what my industry insider friend said: There's no 'Prague Film Festival'.

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Replying to

Important update from an industry insider to wrap up this thread: "There is no 'Prague Film Festival'. There's 'Prague International Film Festival' but the film didn't play there." The film should just rename its title to《噏乜春，又見香港》。

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Replying to

Thanks for the great summary on this propaganda piece.

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Befria Hongkong

@BefriaHongKong

*echo* echo* *echo*

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Magdalena Slezáková

@MagdalenSlezak

Replying to

Hi. Thank you for this thread! I'm a Prague born&based journalist and there is no such thing as a "Prague Film Festival" - or a "festival director Zuzana". Or overcrowded screenings in the cinema Kino Pilotů (I know the place very well). Could you get in touch via DM, pls? /1

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Magdalena Slezáková

@MagdalenSlezak

I would like to cover this topic in an article, what an unabashed load of crap! I'm already working on the story, so send me a message, please, if you can, either here or at magdalena.slezakova@denikn.cz Thank you!

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Replying to

Thank you for this thread!

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Replying to

This is wiiiild

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Replying to

nice work ty!

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Replying to

Thanks for the detailed breakdown

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@PhilipC35920712

Replying to

Thanks very much. 已將你嘅分析廣傳。

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感謝！

咁好笑一定要多啲人知！

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