Investigating Hong Kong Alternative Cinema : The Formation of Cinephilias in the late 1960s

In the history of Hong Kong alternative cinema, cinephilic culture has emerged along with the publication of the Chinese Student Weekly and College Life Monthly, which were both founded in the 1950s and supported by the US as Cold War cultural diplomacy. They played a vital role in fostering the introduction of art-house cinema and providing a platform for a group of young cinephiles to exchange intellectual thoughts and even create amateur films. In the late 1960s, College Life Monthly formed College Cine Club to organise international art-house films screenings, roundtables and seminars regularly. Furthermore, inspired by the Taiwanese avant-garde publication Theatre Magazine and its screening of experimental shorts, film festivals titled “Presentation of Member’s works” and “The First Amateur Film Festival” respectively, featured a series of experimental works made by the group of young cinephiles, were held by College Cine Club in 1968 and 1969.

Responding to the cinephilic culture originated by the two publications in 1950s and blossomed in the late 1960s, this study shall examine how it formulated the circulation and reception of alternative cinema in Hong Kong which shaped the trajectory of modernity in such context, and constructed a liminal space for exploring the intricate relationships among critics, readership, spectators and screen practices. It also looks into the formation of cinephilias as the mechanism of cultural production in the socio-political context of the late 1960s — the interplay between Cold War and the colonial governmentality in particular, and interrogate the discourse of Hong Kong alternative cinema history accordingly.