Describe your typical day at work
I walk from home to the office, which is located inside the cinema itself. One of the things I enjoy the most about working here is that I’m constantly surrounded by the atmosphere of cinema. Being physically present in the building helps me stay connected to the feeling of film, the interaction between our team and visitors, and the overall experience we create.
I usually start my morning with a coffee I make myself at the cinema bar before heading to our office. We’re a small, close-knit team and my role mainly focuses on marketing. My day-to-day work includes creating content for new special screenings and repertory programmes, as well as producing and organising trailers, posters, and other promotional materials in-house. We also have a burger restaurant and cocktail bar inside the cinema, and overseeing its promotion is part of my role.
Every few months, we also host our own special events. At the moment, I’m releasing a German film that wasn’t picked up by Dutch distributors, which we’ll be screening at our cinema. I’ve also arranged for the film to be shown in ten other cinemas across the country, so I’m currently handling the distribution and promotion for that project.
In addition to my marketing responsibilities, I’m involved in organising an upcoming 10-year anniversary programme, which will include a “Hong Kong cinema” special. At the same time, I’m in the early stages of planning an exhibition featuring the work of photographer Greg Girard.
To me, making our cinema feel like a personal, and lived-in space is one of the most important aspects of my work. I want it to feel vibrant and alive. That’s why I also photograph the space and create videos that capture the atmosphere of both the cinema and the restaurant, helping us share that experience online. There’s even more to it, but this gives a good sense of the breadth and diversity of my work.
The moment you fell in love with the Big Screen?
I remember that moment vividly. My love for film actually started on the small screen. As a family, we used to watch films together every weekend, and my brothers and I became regulars at our local video store. The Big Screen came a little later, when my mother took all of us to see Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker in the late ’80s. I had never seen such a huge screen before, and I completely fell in love with the experience of watching a film in the cinema.
The best thing about the cinema experience?
The communal experience of watching a film together is something I enjoy a lot. And these days, I appreciate it even more because I find it so much easier to fully focus on a film in the cinema than at home. At home, I get distracted, pause the film a bit too often, and somehow a two-hour film ends up taking three hours to finish. In the cinema, though: phones off, sitting in the dark, completely immersed. I truly love that experience.