The film, which was funded by a Kickstarter project, hopes to raise awareness and appreciation for their self-sacrifice and for the enormous contribution they make to Hong Kong society.
“We kept hearing from the women that the main thing they would like is to receive a ‘thank you’ for the work that they do,” Joanna Bowers, the film’s director, told CNN.
Filmmaker Joanna Bowers explores the challenging circumstances women face as they come to work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong in her first documentary, The Helper and why it took over 6 years to produce.
As a matter of fact, while there is a growing abundance of work around the issue of domestic workers in Hong Kong, not many focus on motherhood or on personal empowerment. By telling the stories of the migrant workers, “we tried to show how they positively impacted society, allowing many local women to enter the workforce but most of all, we tried to make a film that could resonate with audiences globally,” Bowers says.
Joanna gives voice to stories that usually remain untold. She shows us the husbands whose indolence places the burden of both earning and care-taking on their wives and the children who never understand, even once grown, that their mothers left so they could have a better life. She films the women as they soothe other people’s babies while they ache to hold their own and captures their talents and dreams which go far beyond taking care of a home. Needless to say, there isn’t a dry eye in the house during screenings.
La réalisatrice britannique Joanna Bowers dresse le portrait de femmes, souvent philippines ou indonésiennes, qui sacrifient leur vie personnelle pour venir travailler à Hongkong et envoyer de l’argent à leur famille restée au pays.
Directed by British filmmaker Joanna Bowers and released earlier this year in Hong Kong, the documentary has garnered wide media coverage.
Speaking at the screening, Ms Bowers said she wanted to call attention to domestic helpers — a segment of society that often looks upon themselves as invisible — and remind them of their importance to households. When making the film, she had encountered women who were surprised someone wanted to delve into their lives.
Joanna Bower (left), the director and Tony Verb, the producer of the documentary, The Helper. The Singapore screening of the documentary took place at The Projector on 22 Oct 2017. It features domestic helpers. Photo by Najeer Yusof.
Pleased to be able to share a little behind-the-scenes action from a recent commercial shoot I did for Cathay Pacific in conjunction with the agency Eight Partnership from Hong Kong. Eight had spent a really long time work on the rebranding of Cathay and the cornerstone of that was an update of the livery design on the airplanes themselves.
Cathay is one of the most iconic Hong Kong brands in existence and the goal of this short film was to tell the story of how and why the livery needed updating and explore the chronological process that the designers used to reimagine the brand for a modern day consumer. I was lucky enough to have one of my favorite cinematographers Jack Lam on board for the shoot!
Adding to the challenge of the filming (other than hoping that the planes would be where we wanted them on the shoot day) was that I was also 5 months pregnant whilst directing, so not able to run around quite as much as I might usually on set! It didn’t hold me back though – lucky to always have a PA nearby with a chair!
We shot some incredible visuals and created some really powerful and dynamic storytelling for the brand that came together with some awesome VFX shots once we moved into post-production.
Added bonus was that the Cathay Pacific staff members we cast were naturals on camera and took direction really well!
And we had a really fantastic team on board for the production!
You can check out the finished film from this commercial shoot here: https://joannabowers.com/slider/cathay-pacific-livery-commercial-director/
“Nobody migrates for work for fun. If you have a choice in it you are called an expat, but for people like Hong Kong’s domestic helpers, they just can’t stay in their own country because it’s impossible to support their family.”
http://hivelife.com/behind-closed-doors/
https://medium.com/movies-on-my-shelf/the-e706a5652394
