Chaoshan
Film Archive

Founded in 2015, KwanTeo is a non-profit cultural initiative. Rooted in the fertile soil of the "Chaoshan world," we set sail to connect "Chaoshan around the world."

With cinema as method and point of departure, KwanTeo, in the course of collecting, researching, producing and sharing "global Chaoshan cinema," re-examines its own cultural lineage, builds a contemporary collective discourse, and develops a situationist system of practice through sustained work.

Roots | Grounding, Nourishing, Building

• CineLabBuilding a creative platform to support the conception and production of film content.
• FestivalCurating annual programs to foster public dialogue and artistic exchange.
• ArchiveBuilding a digital archive to preserve the region's cinematic and cultural memory.

Voyages | Exploring, Connecting, Sailing Far

• Field TripGoing deep into the homeland for cultural tracing and fieldwork.
• World KwanTeoBuilding a global platform to open new cultural dialogues.

At the core of KwanTeo lies the creation of concrete "situations." Whether in a village during the Spring Festival or on a coast in midsummer, we bring about genuine encounters. At KwanTeo, people share experiences and perplexities, forming a solidarity grounded in action. Over the past decade, KwanTeo has connected more than a hundred Chaoshan filmmakers, collaborated and grown together with over 200 young artists from around the world, and witnessed the birth of more than 130 films.

Through this work, we embed the scattered cultural mosaic of this land into the plural conditions of the contemporary world; and in the bonds between people and the intermingling of ideas, we offer a situated world-experience for the growth of "home."