Surely a town long admired internationally for its dynamic movie industry can show a little love for independent cinema. Sadly, the last few years have proved otherwise. Hong Kong Island, home to arguably the highest percentage of art-house cinema connoisseurs in the city, can’t sustain one full-time theatre dedicated to this niche industry.

Imperial Cinema in Wan Chai shuttered in 2004 after a strong 35-year run championing quirky releases like Sean Connery’s western Shalako and Tim Burton’s fantastical Big Fish. Cine Art House held firm on the ground level of the Sun Hung Kai Building for nearly 20 years with an even wider gamut of critical favourites, from Japanese comedies in the early 1990s to noirish titles like the Coen brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There to campy hits like Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Cine Art closed in 2006.

Winnie Tsang, managing director of independent film distributor Golden Scene, says it’s hard to sell business folks on backing art-house or cult cinema, not known for fat profits. Tsang adds, “There’s no way to promote since the press don’t write about [art cinema]. It’s getting more and more difficult. Art cinema movies usually don’t have big-name casts.”

The ease of watching movies online and at no cost has waylaid the entire film industry, but art-house cinema purveyors, already on the margins, are feeling the squeeze most. Tsang says theatres like Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei and the most recent offering, Broadway in Kowloon Bay, are viable due to lower overheads compared to Hong Kong Island.

“Cinema operators will not be content because rent is so expensive,” she explains, noting the wider selection offered by multiplexes. “Gradually, multiplexes became more convenient. From the point of view of the operator, they need to make profit. I don’t blame them.”

Still, if independent cinema is to stage a comeback, Hong Kong Island seems like the most logical place to find enthusiasts. A section of the original Cine Art House space is still vacant.

But the Imperial Cinema, with its proud and loud marquee and prime location on colourful Wan Chai Road, looks like a better bet for jump-starting the movement. The building boasts three screening rooms that seat more than 1,000 people combined. And one-off screenings are sometimes still held there.

“Unless you have a landlord who loves film just for film it won’t work,” Tsang observes. Film-loving entrepreneurs, your challenge has been issued.

Bong Miquiabas

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Finish the TST construction works
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