IVE (Tsing Yi): 30th Reunion — A Story of Vocational Education
Use this as a referenceProject background: a living history of the campus
For IVE Tsing Yi's thirtieth anniversary, the school wanted more than a film presenting its facilities. It needed a documentary that could connect past and present students and staff. First-hand accounts trace key stages from the campus's beginnings as a Technical College in 1993, through VTC's restructuring in 1999 and the changes associated with the new senior secondary curriculum in 2012.
Narrative approach: relationships at the centre
Instead of a fast-paced promotional structure, the film takes a warmer, more reflective documentary approach:
Oral history: Long-serving members of staff provide the core accounts. Their recollections range from teaching with overhead projectors to using iPads and virtual reality, giving concrete detail to the changes over time.
Making relationships visible: Interviewees share specific stories: a student who went on to run an engineering business despite unremarkable early grades, and a team travelling to Malaysia for a solar-car competition. These experiences turn educational ideas into individual stories of development.
Connections beyond the campus: The documentary also considers the campus's wider role, including support connected with logistics facilities and training for the Hospital Authority. These examples place the school within the wider context of Hong Kong's vocational and professional education.
Creative outcome: a time capsule for the alumni community
The eight-minute documentary was screened at an alumni reunion. It serves as an anniversary keepsake and a visual archive, preserving accounts of the effort, relationships and campus life that shaped IVE Tsing Yi over thirty years.
About the IVE Tsing Yi 30th Reunion documentary
Year: 2024
Q&A
How does the documentary work with thirty years of historical material?+
The film follows the idea of passing knowledge and experience from one generation to the next. Darkroom Studio uses contrasts between past and present in the edit, placing overhead-projector teaching from the Tsing Yi Technical College era alongside present-day VR experiences and the SOPHIE solar-car team's overseas activities. The comparison makes changes in vocational education, technology and teaching visible.
How are the relationships between teachers and students captured?+
People are the centre of the documentary. Interviews with long-serving staff and alumni explore personal experiences, including the journey from ordinary grades to running an engineering company. Rather than formal statements read to camera, we focus on the expressions, recollections and interactions that emerge when participants talk about their past. These details give educational values a recognisable human context.
Why make a film around an alumni reunion?+
An alumni film connects an institution's history with the experiences of the people who studied and worked there. For IVE, it provides an archive and a shared point of reference for the community. Recollections of challenges, progress and achievements can also help the wider public understand the lasting role of vocational and professional education.
- Client
- Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Tsing Yi) / VTC
- Project
- IVE (Tsing Yi) 30th Graduation Reunion Video
- Services
- Documentary production, in-depth interviews and organisational heritage storytelling
- Date
- 2024-01-15
