Dorothy: Thesis Outline

Introduction

Background

Before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, most of the sensitive government files related to the colonial rule were being shipped to United Kingdom. Under the twenty-year rule (or thirty-year rule before the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010), most of these files are being released for public access in National Archives in London. To review these archives and its relation to the city's past and future, an organisation named Decoding Hong Kong's History has been scanning and reading these files since two years ago.

Within the framework, the thesis would put its focus on the archives before digital age that expanded the scoop of achievable material (Dekker 13). This thesis would look at the political and personal aspects of the act of reviewing archives, as well as possible ways to explore these aspects through moving image and film.

Thesis statement

As archives are always political, and under the context of Hong Kong colonial archives, that even involves colonialism and negotiation between powers. There are many possible ways to approach these issues, as well as archive as an object or material itself, in film/ moving image works - therefore this thesis would be questioning, how to explore the idea of colonial archive with film/moving image?

Body

Reflection of Hong Kong colonial archives

Short introduction of Hong Kong colonial archives

To understand the Hong Kong colonial archives, the part would provide a brief history of that, as well as the categories and forms of the archives. Besides, it would discuss the process of file release, given the fact that many of sensitive files are still being concealed until the year 2049, while Sino-British Joint Declaration no longer in effect.

Personal experiences with Hong Kong colonial archives

This part would be a summarise of interviews done with individuals who involved in working with the colonial archives in London.

Visual Representation of archival material in films/moving image works

In form of tactile material

One approach to archival material in film and moving image works would be showing the object itself. Besides, it can be as well human relations with the objects, an example would be "[Alain] Resnais's interest in touch and image of hands and tactile contact" (Wilson 8).

In form of video material

Meanwhile a lot of film/moving image works make use of archival video footage as material, with different artistic choices such as editing and altering.

Reflection of the idea of archives in films/moving image works

As a political criticism

• One approach would be taking archive as material to reflect on politics. In the context of Hong Kong there are also film/ moving image works dealing with the political aspect with archival material, such as The Ideal/Na(rra)tion (1993).
  
• Another possible approach would be looking into the politics of archiving itself, and how it shapes our understanding towards the world - as archives is never neutral in itself but involving in power and politics (Mayer 3), a good example would be Statues Also Die (1963).

As a reflection on time and history

In works of Walter Benjamin, Chris Marker and even Alain Resnais, the archival material also serves as a way to explore time and history.

As an expression of personal memory

Meanwhile the other way of dealing with archival material in film/ moving image works, would be seeing it as material to express or reflect on personal memories. One example in Hong Kong context would be One Way Street On A Turntable (2007).

References

Dekker, A. (2017). Lost and Living (in) Archives: Collectively Shaping New Memories, Amsterdam: Pia Pol.
Mayer, O. (2011). "Chris Marker and the Audiovisual Archive". Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies, 20, pp. 1-15.
Wilson, E. (2009). Alain Resnais (French Film Directors), Manchester: Manchester University Press.