Archive seeks more movies, techno help
The establishment of the Hong Kong Film Archive a decade ago might have helped preserve and publicise some of the city's vast array of film heritage.
But veteran film conservationists hope that more can be done to make such culture blossom - by legislation and technological advancement.
The Film Archive, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has managed to rescue and now holds a collection of 9,000 films, including those donated by studios such as Celestial Pictures, which owns the Shaw Brothers' back catalogue, ATV, Union Motion Pictures and the Singapore-based Cathay Organisation. But conservationists still find it difficult to collect films from studios.
'Many are still reluctant to donate,' said Mable Ho Mee-po, the archive's acquisitions manager. 'A lot of companies still treat these films as commercial products and do not want to donate them. We have maintained a good relationship with film companies but perhaps a law requiring film companies to donate film copies could be established.'
Archive chief Richie Lam Kok-sing said that in some countries such as South Korea, a system requiring film companies to donate film copies to the government for archival purposes had been established.
'But we don't have this in Hong Kong,' said Lam. 'We need to establish a law for that. But it requires detailed discussion between the film industry and the government.'
And technological advances were needed to restore classic films already in the film archive.
Lam said films made before the 1950s could not be restored in Hong Kong, as the city was not equipped to process movies shot on highly inflammable nitrate film.
He said the archive had collaborated with the film conservation centre L'Imaggine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy. Of the 9,000 films in the collection, 50 per cent had already been restored, including Fei Mu's 1940 classic Confucius.
