''Lessons in Dissent'' () is a 2014 documentary film about young political activists in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Synopsis

''Lessons in Dissent'' was filmed over 2011 and 2012 and follows two student activists,

Joshua Wong Joshua Wong Chi-fung (; born 13 October 1996) is a Hong Kong activist and politician. He served as secretary-general of the pro-democracy party Demosistō until it disbanded following the implementation of the Hong Kong national security law ...

and Ma Jai, as they protest the proposed adoption of the

Moral and National Education Moral and national education (MNE), initially known as Moral and civic education (MCE), was a school curriculum proposed by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong in 2012. The subject was controversial for its stance on the Chinese Communist Part ...

curriculum for Hong Kong's schools. They felt the curriculum amounted to brainwashing. Wong, a secondary school student at the time, is portrayed as a charismatic young leader. He founded a student group called

Scholarism Scholarism was a Hong Kong pro-democracyWilfred Chan and Yuli Yang, CNNbr>Echoing Tiananmen, 17-year-old Hong Kong student prepares for democracy battle 28 September 2014 student activist group active in the fields of Hong Kong's education po ...

to fight the changes and became famous in his opposition. Ma Jai, a school drop-out, remained active in the

League of Social Democrats The League of Social Democrats (LSD) is a social democratic party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Chan Po-ying, wife of Leung Kwok-hung, it positions itself as the radical wing of the pro-democracy camp (Hong Kong), pro-democracy camp and stresses on ...

as an organiser and protester. Both were arrested for their efforts but the protests succeeded and that National Education curriculum was made optional. “Lessons in dissent”
''The Economist'', 4 July 2014

History

The film was premiered at the 38th Hong Kong International Film Festival on 29 March 2014 and released in theatres a week later on 5 April 2014. It played in theatres in Hong Kong during the summer of 2014. It gained renewed notoriety during the

Umbrella Revolution A series of sit-in street protests, often called the Umbrella Revolution and sometimes used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, or Occupy Movement, occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014. The protests began after th ...

of the fall of 2014 with Joshua Wong's prominent role. It was screened at the

Mumbai International Film Festival The Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (MIFF) is a festival organized in the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) by the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. It ...

.Clarence Tsui
“'Lessons in Dissent' ('Mei gau ching'): Mumbai Review”
''The Hollywood Reporter'', 14 October 2014 and the One World film festival in Prague, Czech Republic, March 2015. It has been broadcast on NHK in Japan, PTS in Taiwan and on Movie Movie channel in Hong Kong. It is available to purchase on Amazon, YouTube, and iTunes.

References

External links

Lessons in Dissent on YouTubeIMDb entry
2014 films Documentary films about politics Hong Kong documentary films 2014 documentary films Films about activists Politics of Hong Kong Chinese documentary films 2010s Hong Kong films {{poli-documentary-film-stub