Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Hong Kong, Britain, China: The Documentary Film, 1896–1941, A Page of History (1941) and The Battle of Shanghai (1937)
- 2 Hong Kong, Britain, China: The Documentary Film, 1947–69, the ‘Picturesque’ Committed Film and Water Comes over the Hills from the East (1965)
- 3 Colonial Film: The Development of Official Film–making in Hong Kong, 1945–73, the Hong Kong Film Unit (1959–73) and This is Hong Kong (1961)
- 4 Public-service Broadcasting in an Authoritarian Setting: The Case of Radio Television Hong Kong and the Development of Television Documentary Film in Hong Kong
- 5 The Documentary Films of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and The Hong Kong Case (1989)
- 6 Aesthetics and Radicalism: An Overview of Independent Documentary Film in Hong Kong, 1973–2013
- 7 A Critical Analysis of Significant Independent Documentary Films of the Past Three Decades
- Conclusions: The Future of Independent Documentary Film in Hong Kong, China and the Region
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - The Documentary Films of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and The Hong Kong Case (1989)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Hong Kong, Britain, China: The Documentary Film, 1896–1941, A Page of History (1941) and The Battle of Shanghai (1937)
- 2 Hong Kong, Britain, China: The Documentary Film, 1947–69, the ‘Picturesque’ Committed Film and Water Comes over the Hills from the East (1965)
- 3 Colonial Film: The Development of Official Film–making in Hong Kong, 1945–73, the Hong Kong Film Unit (1959–73) and This is Hong Kong (1961)
- 4 Public-service Broadcasting in an Authoritarian Setting: The Case of Radio Television Hong Kong and the Development of Television Documentary Film in Hong Kong
- 5 The Documentary Films of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and The Hong Kong Case (1989)
- 6 Aesthetics and Radicalism: An Overview of Independent Documentary Film in Hong Kong, 1973–2013
- 7 A Critical Analysis of Significant Independent Documentary Films of the Past Three Decades
- Conclusions: The Future of Independent Documentary Film in Hong Kong, China and the Region
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Although established in 1970 Radio Hong Kong Television (RHKTV) did not produce anything that year, and, by 1971, the unit was still only producing some short information bulletins derived from Government Information Services (GIS) sources. The unit did not actually become fully operational until 1972, when it moved into new studios made ready for it at the new Radio Hong Kong (RHK) centre, Broadcasting House, in the Kowloon Tong area of Kowloon. However, although RHKTV was able to develop its own news bulletins from late 1972, the unit did not succeed in freeing itself entirely from dependence upon well-established GIS sources, and this situation continued after the founding of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) in 1976. It was, apparently, not until the early 1980s that RTHK developed full editorial autonomy over its news broadcasting. RHKTV, under Controller, Television, James Hawthorne, began to recruit staff from 1971. In 1973 RHKTV began to broadcast its first film series, Home in Hong Kong. Broadcast once a week on the platforms of the two commercial broadcasters, Home in Hong Kong lasted for half an hour, and, with its magazine format, can be regarded as successor to the Hong Kong Film Unit's Hong Kong Today, a newsreel programme which was screened in the cinema rather than broadcast on television. Home in Hong Kong was released predominantly in Chinese, and remade in English-language version on a few occasions. The series lasted only a few years and was eventually replaced in 1977–8 – after RHKTV had become part of RTHK – by a currentaffairs series which still runs in the present day.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Hong Kong Documentary Film , pp. 144 - 171Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2014