Evans Yiu Shing Chan is a New York- and Hong Kong-based critic, librettist and an independent filmmaker of more than a dozen fiction and documentary films, which have been screened around the world. His directorial debut To Liv(e) (1991) was listed by Time Out as one of the 100 Greatest Hong Kong Films. A critical anthology about his work, Postcolonalism, Diaspora, and Alternative Histories: The Cinema of Evans Chan was published by the HKU Press in 2015. We Have Boots is the sequel to his acclaimed documentary Raise the Umbrellas (2016).
Evans Chan’s To Liv(e): Screenplay and Essays, edited by Tak-wai Wong
“To Liv(e) was inspired by actress Liv Ullmann’s 1990 visit to Hong Kong, where she decried the forced deportation of 51 Vietnamese refugees. This, coupled with the Tiananmen Square the year before, contributes to a dark cloud of apprehension that shades this film as the British Crown colony faces imminent takeover by China in 1997… To Liv(e) is filled with the kind of style, performances and ambition one might expect from a film critic turned filmmaker, and for which no apologies need be made…With a painter’s eye in capturing the bohemian fringe of the Hong Kong art scene, and the mature voice of a seasoned filmmaker, Chan examines love, family and the fate of Hong Kong, and the culture clash between East and West with equal depth and assurance.”
— The Hollywood Reporter
“Evans Chan has made a singular contribution to Hong Kong cinema and at the same time a major contribution to the whole spectrum of contemporary film-making. His work achieves a seamless blend of fact and fiction to produce an innovative kind of essayistic cinema, driven equally by issues and by his own experiences and perceptions. He draws on everything from literature and political studies to journalism and social-activist campaigns for his subjects—and on everything from film history to performance art for his images. Best of all, he’s rigorously non-conformist: he asks the awkward questions, probes the areas of sensitivity and challenges orthodoxies at every turn.”—Tony Rayns, film-maker, critic and festival programmer
*Best Actress & Best Supporting Actress Awards, The 29th Golden Horse Awards, Taiwan 1992
*Best Actress Award, Portugal Sintra Festival 1991
