A 1970s Film Collective: Phoenix Cine Club and the Experimental Cinema of Hong Kong

Modern Hong Kong culture was profoundly shaped by the Cold War context. In the 1970s in particular, clusters of publications from different ideological camps blossomed and competed. An influential film group, Phoenix Cine Club, was founded in 1973 to revitalize the experimental film culture of the late 1960s and to promote collective film practices by providing a platform for the screening and production of experimental cinema by young and amateur filmmakers. It created an alternative space for the production, circulation and reception of experimental cinema and nurtured a group of filmmakers that later became known as the Hong Kong New Wave.
A closer look at the activities of the Phoenix Cine Club reveals experimental cinema as a major component in local cultural production, and provides insights into the political and social realm of Hong Kong in this era of transition. This period’s clusters of publications also shed light on the many political and artistic associations of the Cold War, and their negotiation with colonial governmentality. This paper therefore will not only deal with local cultural activism, but will also provide an analytical tool to examine the meaning of experimental cinema in a specific socio-political context. In short, this study brings the perspective of experimental cinema to bear onto the mainstream account of Hong Kong’s cultural and historical trajectory in the 1970s and examines how a film collective like the Phoenix Cine Club shaped Hong Kong experimental cinema.