The 1967 riots are a watershed in Hong Kong history and some would say the starting point for the development of Hong Kong consciousness. Yet the official records of this critical period today are sadly incomplete. What information can be found online is hard to verify and authenticate. Documentary film director Connie Lo Yan-wai spent four years interviewing participants of the riots, from the children of the leftist leaders of the time, to members of the “bomb squads”, union leaders and patriotic students. Others who share their personal experiences include former police officers, a senior government information director, journalists and a number of witnesses and victims. Lo sifted through piles of old newspapers, government documents and declassified British government records in order to produce the documentary, “Vanished Archives”. As a number of those who experienced the events of the time passed away during the four years it took to produce the film, the documentary has become their final record of their recollections of and reflections on those times. Are the political entanglements between the Mainland and Hong Kong fifty years ago a mirror reflecting today’s Hong Kong?  Some maintain traces of the past can be detected in the present.

Discussion with the filmmakers follows the screening.