Restoring Memory: Paths to Life features three recently restored films that examine the history of war and cultural displacement in Asia: okay bye-bye (1998) by Rebecca Baron, Watching While Dying (1983) by Dorothee Schön and Hubertus Meyer-Burckhardt, and Mellanrum (1985) by Zhang Zhen.

These works follow historical moments drifting along migration pathways—from the traces of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge to the “boat people” fleeing Vietnam; from the recollections of a woman in a foreign land to the mediated spectacle of the exiles under the European gaze—inhabiting a space of in-betweenness shaped by displacement and diaspora. By reworking archival materials through distinct poetic, essayistic, or surrealistic approaches, they question the capacity and limitations of images and memories as vehicles for truth. Rather than producing meanings through interpretation, they blur the boundaries between documentary and fiction, evoking affective and sensory responses that reconfigure our relationship with the past.

Decades after their initial creation, the restoration of the films further embodies cinema’s temporal multiplicity, inviting reflections on the dynamic interplay among historical time, film time, and the present moment. These films offer comparative perspectives on Asia as a site of historical flux, where global, regional, and local transitions are interdependent and intertwined.

This program continues the effort to foster dialogue and reimagine “Asianness” and its dynamic cultural contexts through experimental filmmaking and film restoration. We pay tribute to the archiving, preservation, and restoration work of the films with special thanks to:

•  The Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies, New York University, for the digital preservation of Mellanrum.
•  The Royal Film Archive of Belgium-CINEMATEK for the digital preservation of okay bye-bye.
•  The HFF Film Heritage project run by the CreatiF Center of the University of Television and Film Munich, for the restoration work and the screening opportunity of Watching While Dying.

In-person Q&A after the screening with Zhang Zhen, the director of Mellanrum and the founding director of the Asian Film and Media Initiative at New York University.