Faceless (2021)

My first feature edit could not have been more complex and under more difficult circumstances. We followed four protestors during the 2019-2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy movement. Each one of them has their own motivation, backstory, and conflict within the larger protests. The challenge was weaving individual stories around the film’s spine: the actual chronology of the protests.

I edited this from January 2020 to October 2020, during the COVID pandemic and through the George Floyd protests. In the morning, I would put my headphones on and cycle through hours of footage of protestors facing police and sounds of teargas and rubber bullets being fired.

In the afternoon, I’d take a walk outside. I was living near downtown Chicago at the time. I’d witness the same sights and sounds in the city. Eerie how places can be far apart, but humanity’s challenges remain universal.