Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Trams rumbling along the tracks, a man pushing a cart along a side street, a worker sweeping leaves on the pavement. While some might consider these to be mundane moments in Hong Kong, videographer Jazzie Sillona uses them to inspire his viral videos.
“I get a lot of DMs from people expressing their good memories of Hong Kong and how nostalgic it is for them,” Sillona said. “Sometimes, they even say, ‘I cried over your videos.’”
The filmmaker became famous on social media after posting a video of Hong Kong to his Instagram account, @jazziesillona, in late 2022.
Sillona, now in his mid-30s, explained that he wanted to inspire people who left Hong Kong during the pandemic to return.
“I showed them the neighbourhood side of Hong Kong not usually shown on most tourist accounts,” he said.
“After a month or two, I had gained 100,000 [followers],” he noted; he now has about 500,000.
Where it began
Sillona’s interest in film started at a young age. He grew up in Qatar and loved to watch films with his family. He also enjoyed making home movies and shooting videos of his friends and classmates on birthdays and special occasions.
During university in the Philippines, Sillona studied nursing and business. He opted not to pursue film because he worried his family would not support it, but he kept it up as a hobby.
He first visited Hong Kong as a tourist in 2014. One memory that stood out for him was leaving the airport and sitting on the double-decker bus as it flew across the Tsing Ma Bridge.
“It felt like a movie for me. I used to watch Jackie Chan movies growing up with my dad, [and they] were made in Hong Kong. I thought, ‘Oh, I feel like I’m in a movie right now.’”
It wasn’t until he moved to Hong Kong in 2019 that his hobby became a career. He worked as a freelance photographer and videographer before starting his production company, Jazzie Films, in 2022.
Now, he is busier than ever, flooded with opportunities to create content for different companies. His style reflects his mission to tap into Hong Kong’s beautiful chaos and help people remember what they love about the city.
“It’s fulfilling because I get to ... remind them of home or good memories,” he said. “When they watch my videos, at least it’s easing their homesickness.”
Use the puzzle below to test your knowledge of the vocabulary words in the story.
Sample answers
-
Stop and think: Sillona tries to make the viewer feel nostalgia and therefore films quieter neighbourhoods and more everyday scenes.
-
Consider: Sillona felt like he was in a movie and was reminded of the Jackie Chan movies he watched growing up.
-
Reflect: Sillona first became interested in film after watching movies with his family while growing up. He then proceeding to make home movies and film special occasions for his friends and family.
