Derek Yee mentors young Hong Kong directors at SIFF
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- Derek Yee produced the SIFF opening film "Afterpiece" and mentored its director T. Keane Wong, who began as his script supervisor at age 19 on "I Am Somebody".
- Derek Yee criticized the common practice of assistant directors abandoning projects after filming, urging them to stay involved through post‑production to gain full‑cycle experience.
- Derek Yee credited younger collaborators like T. Keane Wong for helping him manage memory lapses on set and for providing rapid AI knowledge, saying he now turns to them for answers.
- Derek Yee emphasized that working with emerging filmmakers re‑energizes his own creative drive, noting that their presence reminds him of his youthful cinematic dreams.
- Derek Yee highlighted the difficulty of financing Hong Kong films, urging directors to stay positive, network, and model their self‑promotion on Peter Chan’s marketing approach.
- Derek Yee framed cinema as a commercial commodity with artistic merit and an artwork with commercial value, stressing directors’ responsibility to investors and broader audiences.
- Derek Yee concluded that despite a 50‑year career, he continues making movies because “you have something to say,” while acknowledging that only a few films spark real‑world change.
Why it matters: The Director’s Succession Scheme gives emerging Hong Kong filmmakers hands‑on exposure to production, scriptwriting, and financing, while veteran Derek Yee gains fresh AI insights and memory support, collectively strengthening the talent pipeline and investor confidence in a market where funding is scarce.
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