What makes the dispersed narratives in Global South : An Ethnographic Study of Alternative Archives in Hong Kong

This paper aims to examine two alternative and independent archives — VMAC by Videotage and a newly developed archival project of Hong Kong independent documentary, in order to study the archiving process of non-feature film in conjunction with the shaping of film history and the cultural politics in Hong Kong. Facing the threat of cultural disappearance of the diverse cinephile, these two archives have played the key role of demonstrating multiple forms of archiving and developing the archival culture of audiovisual in the context of Hong Kong. These two examples outline a specific articulation of socio-political condition with the archival culture in a larger structure of Global South, which shed light on an “other film heritage” along the geo-politics. This study shall be delineated in an ethnographic approach with my personal participation and observation in these two archives.