Dotted with towering corporate skyscrapers, the skyline of Hong Kong attests to its global reputation as a financial hub; this image is profoundly challenged by San San F Young’s passionate documentary. Turning her camera to the streets and taking us into artists’ studios, the film-maker captures the vibrant creative scene of the city. The turmoil of the protests against the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill, along with the draconian laws that followed, hangs heavy over every frame. In the midst of political turbulence, art emerges as a powerful, transformative tool of collective resistance.

In an engaging and personable voiceover, Young weaves in stories from her own life growing up in Hong Kong as a rebellious teenager. Surrounded by bankers and financiers, she yearned to follow the footsteps of her film-making idols, such as Spike Lee, in the west. Her youthful disenchantment only makes Hong Kong Mixtape more moving as a hybrid of autobiography and documentary. We are introduced to a multitalented group of artists, but Young herself is also rediscovering what makes Hong Kong unique and culturally diverse, where activism and creativity go hand in hand. Alongside skilfully graffitied slogans, public electronic displays offer protest songs, raps and skits. Elsewhere, dance troupes create choreography out of banned gestures.

The flames of resistance are effectively snuffed out by the passing of Hong Kong’s national security law in 2020, which led to the imprisonment of many opposition leaders and pro-democracy activists. With artists forced into silence or exile, protest art rapidly disappears from public view, destroyed and erased. Still, the film is not an elegy, but a message of hope; in the same way that Young has picked up her camera, Hong Kong artists around the globe continue to create, keeping the spirit of a movement alive.

• Hong Kong Mixtape is on True Story from 19 December.