ENG-1999 — Page 432

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RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

Theatre programmes featured a wide variety of works by local creative forces including No Man's Land, the Actors' Family, the Prospects Theatre, the Theatre Ensemble, the Theatre Space and the Chung Ying Theatre Company.

Collaboration with cultural institutions such as the Goethe Institut, the British Council, Alliance Francaise de Hong Kong, Ying e Chi, Videotage and the South China Film Industry Workers' Union in presenting film and video programmes continued to attract much public interest.

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To celebrate the new millennium, the two provisional municipal councils presented the Millennium Celebration Cantonese Opera Festival. This event featured over 40 performances and film shows in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the death. of Tong Tik-sang, a Cantonese opera playwright and director, and a week-long international Cantonese opera showcase. Other operatic highlights included a wide variety of Kunju performances by the Zhejiang Kunju Troupe, a new Shaoxing opera Kong Yiji and a newly commissioned Beijing opera The Great Belfry.

Entertainment Programmes

During the year, the Provisional Urban Council staged 242 free entertainment programmes, partly in collaboration with district organisations, in parks, playgrounds and community halls as well as the council's community arts centres. These programmes covered a variety of performing art forms: traditional, cultural, modern and popular. They attracted more than 58 000 people.

Outdoor mass entertainment extravaganzas organised by the council included the Spring Lantern Festival, the Summer Fun Festival, the Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival, the Christmas Carnival and the New Year's Eve Family Fun Carnival. About 385 000 people attended these festive events. The council also presented the World Professional Ballroom & Latin American Dance event at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, and co-ordinated the annual Lunar New Year and National Day fireworks displays over Victoria Harbour.

Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards

Jointly presented with the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the annual competition aims to encourage creative non-commercial independent productions of short film and video in Hong Kong and to promote public interest in these artistic, communicative and expressive media.

Hong Kong International Film Festival

The annual Hong Kong International Film Festival, held in March/April, is one of the world's major non-competitive film festivals. The 23rd festival in 1999 presented 311 films from more than 45 countries and attracted a total audience of 190 700.

Apart from the screening of films, a number of fringe activities were held, including exhibitions, seminars, forums, student previews, outdoor film shows, independent filmmakers' gathering and meet-the-director sessions. The topic of the Hong Kong Cinema Retrospective was Hong Kong New Wave Twenty Years After, featuring distinguished works directed by 'new wave' film-makers such as Ann Hui, Tsui Hark, Patrick Tam, Allen Fong and Yim Ho. The festival also introduced the FIPRESCI (International Film Critics Federation Award) to commend quality films from Asian new directors. The award was won by Indian director Sivan's A Journey while Hong