What sorts of documentaries are made in Taiwan? Do the filmmakers share similar themes, or do they cover a more diverse range? In conjunction with Taiwan Docs, over the next two weeks we will present a selection of the most recent short and mid-length Taiwanese documentaries that have been screened at prestigious international film festivals.
Home Abroad, a personal essay by the film’s director – a student in Brussels – offers an external view of Taiwan as the filmmaker explores his identity and culture, contrasting it with the European mentality. Conversely, MATA – The Island’s Gaze, shows an outsider’s view of Taiwan’s inhabitants through the camera lens of the Scottish photographer John Thomson, who visited the country in the nineteenth century. Letter #69 portrays the period of Taiwan’s White Terror and the prisoner Shi Shui-huan, who was imprisoned and executed for hiding her brother. While in prison, she wrote exactly sixty-nine letters to her loved ones, and they are the only remnant of her life. Then, in her short film The River, director Hsu Ya-Ting draws us into her deep and profound experience of pregnancy and childbirth. How does a woman come to terms – both physically and mentally – with her new role? The last film in our selection, In Memory of the Chinatown, captures the transformation of the city of Tainan, which has changed beyond recognition since the 1970s. How do urbanistic interventions change the people who live in the affected neighborhood?
Until August 19 you have the opportunity to join us and see these stories from Taiwan in a special program prepared in collaboration with Taiwan Docs.
DAFilms.com is powered by Doc Alliance, a creative partnership of 7 key European documentary film festivals. Our aim is to advance the documentary genre, support its diversity and promote quality creative documentary films.
