Hong Kong/ 2022/ 81mins/ English, Filipino &  Cantonese/ English subtitles

We Don’t Dance for Nothing is a photo-montage love letter to the Filipina domestic workers of Hong Kong. A true memory shared by a community of 400,000 migrant workers, the story follows a twenty-something Filipina, living a humdrum life as a domestic helper, planning to run away from Hong Kong to pursue her dreams of independence, romantic love, and freedom.

The film blends still images with fluid motion to challenge the subjectivity of memory, and to underscore the passionate street dancing of these marginalised women, inviting viewers to viscerally experience their entrapment, and the enchantment as if released into freedom when they dance. They dance to celebrate, to remember, to forget, to take up space in a world that demands them to give up their individuality in exchange for a meek, submission existence. 

Suitable for All