I am honoured to have been given an opportunity to comment at a recent community screening of the award-winning film 十年 Ten Years (dir. Andrew Choi) at Tenth Church Vancouver on October 21, 2016. Because I was unable to physically make it to the screening, the organizers asked me to make a video with my comments. This video subsequently turned into my first foray into the world of YouTube, which I plan to explore further in the future.
Ten Years is a set of dystopian film shorts about a possible future in Hong Kong without democracy and autonomy from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This community screening was an attempt to help people in Vancouver, especially (but not limited to practicing Christians), become conscious that such conditions are ripe material for doing theology. Because I was the lead editor of a book that was recently published (Theological Reflections on the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement [Palgrave, 2016]), the organizers asked me to help with the task of theological reflection. In the video, I introduce viewers to the basic methods of theologies of liberation in the see-judge-act method, which we use in the book as well. The organizers attached this video to the beginning of the film and played it before showing the movie.
The ease of being able to make this video on my phone has given me the idea of possibly making more videos explaining basic concepts that I use in my work on YouTube. I suppose this is a way for me as an academic to conduct some public engagement. It was fun and productive, and I look forward to seeing where this may head.
I want to thank the team that organized this screening of Ten Years for bringing me along for the ride and for helping me to see that my work has public importance. I’m excited to see where the conversation in Vancouver is going, and I hope that I’ll be able to use the medium of YouTube videos for more public engagement going forward as well.