Visual Ethnography: Found footge / Floating Site (index)
Urban Space of Hong Kong as The Imaginary: a Visual Story in 5 Episodes (a visual lecture)香港城市空間想象界：一個五段式的視覺故事
2005.04, 16m 55s
image from RTHK website
[創作前提／字幕劇本／被引述的電影 purpose, text, citations (2005) in pdf]
[watch the complete video]
URBAN SPACE OF HONG KONG AS THE IMAGINARY: A VISUAL STORY IN 5 EPISODES / a visual lecture by Linda Lai
16m55s / color + b/w / 4:3 / sound / 2005.04
Urban City of Hong Kong as the Imaginary: a visual story in 5 episodes (2005) is a visual ethnographic exercise in the form of a video lecture surveying the notion of Hong Kong as an urban dwelling in her local cinema and independent works in the postwar period up to 2005.
The +16-minute video lecture was prepared for and delivered at the symposium “A Matter of Ownership: dialogues on art and cultural space of Singapore & Hong Kong,” for the Bilateral Cultural Exchange Project “Metropolis Strip(p)ed,” co-funded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the LCSD, and the National Arts Council of Singapore, organized by Para/Site Art Space (Hong Kong) and The Substation (Singapore). [link to publication]
《香港都市想象界：一个五段式的视觉故事》（2005）是一则视觉民俗志练习，探寻香港作为一个都市住宅密集区的概念，在上世纪战后到2005年间如何呈现於香港本土的大电影和独立作品中，构成一段不用述说的影像讲座。这五个段落分别是：1）《空间生产：从上规划？民间自发？》；2）《本地城市神话的冒现：这是说给谁听的故事？》；3）《悚然的城市》；4）《九七倒数：等待》；5）《独立视野，我有我观点。》；以及 6）《结语：挪用再生、被压抑的回归》。
这段时长16分钟的影片讲座是为专题研讨会“我城我城：重塑空间、演说历史，Para/Site（香港）与电力站（新加坡）艺术空的双向交流对话”而准备，该研讨会是为由香港艺术发展局、康乐及文化事务署和新加坡国家艺术理事会主办，Para/Site艺术空间（香港）及变电站（新加坡）承办的双边文化交流项目“被剥离的大都会”而举行的。
The 5 episodes 五段陳述
I. Production of Space: Top-down? Bottom-up? 空間生產：從上規劃？民間自發？
II. Emergence of local urban legends: for whom are the stories told? 本地城市神話的冒現：這是說給誰聽的故事？
III. The Haunting/Haunted City 悚然的城市
IV. The Count-down Anticipating 1997 九七倒數：等待
V. Independent Visions 獨立視野，我有我觀點。
EPIPLOGUE: Re-appropriation / Return of the Repressed… 結語：挪用再生、被壓抑的回歸
Films cited in the visual lecture:
[commercial production with commercial release]
Blossom in Rainy May 五月雨中花 (1960)
In the Face of Demolition 危樓春曉 (1953)
The House of 72 Tenants 七十二家房客 (1973)
Kungfu Rhapsody 功夫 (2004)
He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father 新難兄難弟 (1992)
Father & Son 父子情 (1981)
Cops and Robbers 點指兵兵 (1979)
Hong Kong’73 香港 73 (1974)
Father & Son 父子情 (1981)
Cops and Robbers 點指兵兵 (1979)
Made in Hong Kong 香港製造 (1997)
Dumplings 餃子 (2004)
Hollywood Hong Kong 香港有個荷里活 (2002)
Young and Dangerous 古惑仔再戰江湖 (1998)
Story of Kennedy Town 西環的故事 (1990)
Visible Secret 幽靈人間 (2001)
PTU (2004)
Once Upon a Time in Triad Society II 去吧！渣fit人兵團 (1996)
Love Will Tear Us Apart 天上人間 (1999)
A Night in Mongkok 旺角黑夜 (2004)
Metado Fumaça 半枝煙 (1999)
C’est la vie, mon cheri 新不了情 (1992)
New Emigrant [A Story per Flat] 一樓一故事 (1988)
The Imp 凶榜 (1981)
The Eye 見鬼 (2002)
Visible Secret 幽靈人間 (2001)
Dr. Mack, (aka Mack the Knife) 流氓醫生 (1994)
Heaven Can’t Wait 救世神棍 (1995)
Anna Magdalena 安娜瑪德蓮娜 (1997)
[TV series] Below the Lion Rock 獅子山下 (RTHK)
[Independent productions / experimental video works]
Ah Ming 阿明 [...](Rita Hui 許雅舒, 1996)
In the Dumps垃圾年頭 (Kwok Wai-lun 郭偉倫, 1997)
Happy Valley (Waiting at T-Zero) 沒有人在跑馬地等沒有人 (Mark Chan 陳錦樂, 1996)
The Daily Mood of Final Certainty, OR, The House of August (’97 story) 八月的房子 (Howard Chang, 1997)
17-1/2 十七歲半 (Monica Lee, 1999)
[Little Fatty’s] video diary I 小肥（的錄像日記）(Siu Fei 小肥, 2001)
The tickled Faces of Big Mansions 房子的變臉 (Linda Lai 黎肖嫻 2004)
**Researched and scripted by Linda Lai / Edited by Kedy Fan / April 2005, v.1