Exhibition 'Cityscape in Sight and Sound'

Records in words and images are helpful in understanding history. Among them, moving images provide unique opportunities to experience history in direct, three-dimensional terms. The former glories of Hong Kong, from people to land to practices, had been captured frame by frame on our films.

From documentaries to feature films, precious images of milieus that had disappeared or changed are preserved in our cinema. Although most of Hong Kong's early features were made in studios, occasional scenes shot on location recorded landscapes, architectures and human interactions. While made for narrative purposes, these scenes have taken on historical significance.

This exhibition showcases several hundred scenes, spanning from late 19th Century to the 1960s, chosen from the films in our collection. The exhibition presents views that had faded or even vanished, in black-and-white or in colour, merging into a collage that serves as a "disappeared map" of Hong Kong, guiding the audience through a time tunnel of image and sound.