When trailers lead the way

"Our team was looking at possibilities of new exhibitions and we got talking about how we kept finding these trailers while working at the archive," explains Janice Chow, HKFA project researcher. "We all agreed that they are so special and some of them really are unique. So we knew we had to share them with the public who might otherwise never get a chance to see them."

The staff found around 1,000 trailers in the HKFA vaults, though most of them - being too old and exposed to the endemic deterioration of film stock brought on by Hong Kong's humidity - were in a state of decay. Some were already damaged because of poor storage conditions when the archive acquired them from film studios or private collections. Only around 300 were deemed fit for restoration.

In the end, the HKFA chose around 100 trailers for its exhibition. On a recent weekday afternoon, Chow took media members on a guided tour through the exhibition. The HKFA's cotton-gloved conservation team was there to explain the delicate process of handling and restoring these cinematic gems.