As well as housing the city's film history, the Hong Kong Film Archive plays a role in teaching young people about filmmaking, finds Mathew Scott.

It's a Tuesday afternoon and there's darkness and little movement to greet anyone peering through the windows of No 50 Lei King Road in Aldrich Bay near Sai Wan Ho.

But looks can be deceiving.

While today the Hong Kong Film Archive is closed to the public for weekly maintenance, inside the building around 50 members of staff continue to work on a mission first laid down in 1993 and carried on here since the building opened in 2001.

"Primarily we were set up and are here to preserve Hong Kong's cinema heritage," explains archive head Janet Young Ho-yan. "Basically we have been collecting everything we can since the 1990s. Things keep coming in, and Hong Kong never stops making movies, so there is always something to collect."

As the HKFA's 20th anniversary approaches, its work has arguably never been more important. Given the Hong Kong film industry does not produce that many films any more, preserving the old favorites that once captured the imagination of a large section of moviegoers from the world over is crucial.

The number of films produced annually in Hong Kong is only around 60 compared to 400 in the 1990s. This was a time when the Hong Kong film industry would position itself as the "Hollywood of the East", although the quality of a good number of the films made at the time was questionable. But then a city's cinematic history - comprising the good, bad and the indifferent - also reflects its soul and the HKFA is tasked with preserving this 100-year-old legacy.

Engaging with the young

The HKFA's main challenge today is to connect the younger generations with films not quite of their era, at a time when they are spoilt for choice when it comes to entertainment options.

"We have outreach screenings, exhibitions and our resource center here," says HKFA assistant curator Aric Lung Chi-kit. "When we go to schools we find that kids are really interested in this film heritage. We show them how films were made with keyhole cameras. It seems to lift their heads away from the iPhones."

There's also the race against time to contend with. Hong Kong's heat and humidity, and chemical degradation, has long laid waste to traditional celluloid film stock while many canisters were simply left in neglect or stored without spending much thought on their possible preservation.

Repairing old film stock, and eventually making a digital version of the film, can take years of painstaking work. The HKFA works closely with the likes of the L'Immagine Ritrovata Film Restoration Laboratory in Bologna, Italy toward that end.

"Film is entertainment, but film is also part of our culture and heritage," says Young. "It's important that we preserve it and share it."

For film critics, historians and general cineastes of all ages, the HKFA is a treasure trove, with films dating back to the 1920s, plus an impressive collection of memorabilia such as film costumes and posters. There are around a million items in all.

Post-screening seminars and talks featuring historians and critics are held on a regular basis. The "Morning Matinee" screenings on Fridays are usually sold out.

A home for movie memorabilia

For film critic and historian Paul Fonoroff - whose own collection of Chinese cinematic memorabilia is on permanent display at the University of California, Berkeley - the HKFA was a godsend.

"Until the film archives were officially established, there really was no way to preserve this very important aspect of Hong Kong culture in a comprehensive manner, nor was there official recognition of Hong Kong's cinematic legacy as something very much worth preserving and exploring," says Fonoroff. "Finally, studios and magazine publishers had a place where they could deposit old movie prints and magazines - commodities that otherwise would have been tossed into a dumpster since their perceived commercial value was considered nil or at least far below the cost of renting storage space. And the public at large could participate as well, when moving house often means throwing away a lifetime of accumulated movie-related souvenirs."

He is happy to note the strong connections HKFA has forged with the city's film enthusiasts.

"Equally important is that the archive's film series and exhibitions keep the heritage alive and introduce this rich, very Hong Kong art-entertainment-culture to new generations," says Fonoroff.

(HK Edition 07/27/2018 page11)