Homecoming
Description
Homecoming is a short film of Hong Kong seen through animal perspectives.
The city is not an exclusive human colony but a habitat for all life in nature. Yet, while some have adapted to the city, others remain strays or intruders when their original homeland has radically transformed. In 2021, a baby boar came down from the hills in Quarry Bay and inadvertently boarded a subway train, which sparked fervent public attention but also concerns about the increasingly frequent encounter with boars in the city. Another homeless wildlife did not have a happy ending: a whale died in Sai Kung after wandering in the area for two weeks, whose body was found wounded, suspectedly by sightseeing boats. Hong Kong seen from their eyes is not always a welcoming home, but their stories are as valid as those of any human inhabitant in defining what the city is, and the definition of the city is incomplete until we see through their eyes. To visualize these alternative viewpoints, we created a short film using point cloud scans of the city, featuring the journeys of three protagonists: a boar, a bat, and a whale.
Biography
The filmmakers come from the Department of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong, whose teaching, research, and practice experiment with emerging digital media to unveil unseen stories of cities. Their methods combine 3D reconstruction and animation, seeking for unique vision of everyday environments.
Materials
Digital film
Organisation
The University of Hong Kong