| Do Not Split | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Anders Hammer |
| Produced by | Anders Hammer Charlotte Cook |
| Distributed by | Field of Vision |
Release date |
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Running time | 35 minutes |
| Countries | Norway United States |
| Languages | Cantonese English Mandarin |
Do Not Split (Chinese:不割席;pinyin:Bù gē xí) is a 2020documentaryshort film directed byAnders Hammer about the2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. The film was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject at the93rd Academy Awards. The film was funded and produced byField of Vision and supported byFritt Ord and Viken Filmsenter.[1]
The film is about 35 minutes long and records many landmark events of theanti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (anti-ELAB) movement in Hong Kong, including thesiege of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, thesiege of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and protests at theCity University of Hong Kong.[2][3] It also includes interviews with demonstrators and scholars at the scene, and the film also records the suppression of the protests and movement in 2020 and the passage of theHong Kong national security law.[3][4]The director Anders Hammer believed that the anti-ELAB movement was one of the most important political events in the world in 2019, and that Hong Kong is facing challenges to democratic values. By presenting the events from a street-level perspective, Hammer hopes that the film will be as close to the events as possible.[5]
A 20-minute preliminary version was shown at the 2020Sundance Film Festival in January 2020. Then, a 35-minute cut was premiered atDOC NYC in the fall of 2020.[6]
The film was screened at a number of film festivals internationally, including theNew Orleans Film Festival in the US and theCopenhagen International Documentary Film Festival in Denmark.[7] It was released byField of Vision on 25 January 2021.[8]
Do Not Split was uploaded onYouTube andVimeo on 25 January 2021, and is available to watch for free.[9][10][11]
Do Not Split was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject at the93rd Academy Awards.[12][13][14] The film is the third Field of Vision short film to receive an Oscar nomination in three years.[12][15][16] Following the nomination, the Chinese government told local media not to live transmit the Oscars and to downplay the significance of the awards ceremony, according to reports.[17][18]TVB, the largest free-to-air broadcaster in Hong Kong, announced that it would not broadcast the Oscars for the first time in 50 years.[19]
Anders Hammer won the Video Journalist of the Year and the long documentary award for the film at the 2020 Photo of the Year Awards in Norway.[20][21] The film won the Special Jury Prize at theAFI Docs 2020.[22]