The interest in all things Asian is growing faster than capital markets in the global world. That goes for documentary films as well. The contemporary production of Asian documentary filmmakers is regularly presented by Taiwan International Documentary Festival.
The interest in all things Asian is growing faster than capital markets in the global world. That goes for documentary films as well. The contemporary production of Asian documentary filmmakers is regularly presented by Taiwan International Documentary Festival.
TIDF takes places every two years, is financed by the local ministry of culture and was founded already in 1998. There were only a few international events of that type in Asia at that time, including the oldest Yamagata IDFF in Japan. The founders of the TIDF decided not to take a competitive approach but rather create a strong Asian platform. The will was mutual, all turned out well and each festival is held every second year. Thanks to the mutual support, their power is growing and so is their quality.
After 10 years, TDIF is no longer a local affair. This year’s edition was attended by 30 000 viewers who could choose among 130 films! “Our strategy is to focus on Asian and Chinese-speaking films. We hope TIDF can become a friendly platform for independent filmmakers. We believe they will enjoy the fairly free and easy atmosphere in Taiwan,” explains TIDF Programme Director Wood Lin.
Regarding the history of China and Taiwan, the remark about freedom and mutual relations is not off the point. ”All independent film festivals were banned by the Beijing government. Chinese independent filmmakers are facing a considerable hardship and there is little room to show their films,” explains Wood Lin. It is therefore not surprising that while high-quality films are forced to go underground, all Chinese documentary filmmakers welcome the TIDF as an opportunity to present their work.
However, the festival has much more to it. It presents six competition categories altogether and not only the winning films and this year’s films are worth watching. The timeless favourites of the festival include Chung Chuan’s Face to Face, Listen Darling by Su Ming-yen, 4891 by Huang Ting-Fu, Mountain Spirits by the duo Kuo-liang Chiang and Singing Chen and Yao Hung-I’s Hometown Boy. See for yourselves!
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