Sandra Sanders, Fight For Freedom: The Battle for Hong Kong (DOCO 2021)

In 2019-2020, the streets of Hong Kong became a battleground as residents fought for their democratic freedom. High school students built umbrella barricades and quickly learnt which gas masks would best protect them from the onslaught of chemical weapons fired by riot police. Civilians became first aid volunteers and spent night after night running toward the danger to treat injured protestors and passers-by. Even children could not escape the violence – nor the tear gas. Yet life went on, and tourists still came to the city and posed for Christmas family portraits. Despite the many months I spent documenting the movement, these juxtapositions of normality and suffering never failed to shake me to my core. I still live with this sense of disquiet, for I am aware that what happened in Hong Kong could happen anywhere, at any time.

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