Taiwan Film Festival

Screening Schedules for 2008 Taiwan Film Festival

2008-10-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

University of San Francisco
10/16 - 10/17

Stanford University
10/17 - 10/18

University of Washington, Seattle
10/20 - 10/22

University of Oregon, Eugene
10/23 - 10/25

University of Nevada, Las Vegas
10/24 - 10/26

For more information about the program, screening films and visiting filmmakers, please visit the 2008 Taiwan Film Festival Blog.

2008 Taiwan Film Festival

2008-07-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are marching into the third year of the Taiwan Film Festival. This year, the film tour will take the films and filmmakers to five participating universities starting in mid-October. Below is a tentative schedule for you to mark your calendar.

University of San Francisco
10/16 - 10/17

Stanford University
10/17 - 10/18

University of Washington
10/20 - 10/22

University of Oregon in Eugene
10/23 - 10/25

University of Nevada Las Vegas
10/24 - 10/26

The 2008 Taiwan Film Festival blog is now online and we are working on adding film info and venue info at the moment. Please check back often. Hope to see you at the screenings.

2007 Taiwan Film Festival

2007-09-04T14:26:00.001-07:00

The 2007 Taiwan Film Festival is scheduled to take place in 5 locations in October.

Stanford University (Palo Alto)
University of California, Davis (Davis)
Salt Lake City Film Center (Salt Lake City)
University of Oregon (Eugene)
University of Washington (Seattle)

The 2007 Taiwan Film Festival blog is now online and we are working on adding screening films and venue info at the moment. Please check back soon.

2006 Taiwan International Film & TV Expo

2006-11-15T17:16:00.000-08:00

2006 Taiwan International Film & TV Expo

Spotlight On Taiwan—Vision for Asia

The 2006 Taiwan International Film and TV Expo will get underway in just a few short weeks. Last year marked the first time that Taiwan integrated a number of film and television-related events under a single umbrella, and the organizers this year are looking to build on last year’s experience in holding this year’s Expo. This year’s International Film and TV Expo will be further highlighted by the 51st Asian Pacific Film Festival, which will be held in Taipei. It is expected that the scale of this year’s range of activities as well as the number of guests and stars participating will set a new high. During the month of November, Taiwan will without a doubt be the focus of the world with regards to film and television.

The Government Information Office last year for the first time integrated a number of major local film and television activities, creating the Taiwan International Film & TV Expo. The goal in holding a series of events under one umbrella is to help promote Taiwan’s film and television industries and both strengthen and upgrade Taiwan’s international competitiveness in these industries. In November of this year, the Golden Horse Awards, the Golden Bell Awards, the Taipei TV & Film Festival, the Asia Pacific Film Festival, and the 50 Year Retrospective of Taiwanese Language Films will be held under the 2006 Taiwan International Film and TV Expo banner.

Sylvia Feng

2006-09-27T11:25:00.000-07:00

Sylvia FENG is a senior producer at Public Television Service. She is the executive producer of the only documentary program in Taiwan-Viewpoint. She has been a radio and television professional for more than 20 years and has devoted herself to the promotion and development of public service broadcast in Taiwan over the past decade. She has also led the fight to broadcast Taiwan’s first program produced by indigenous minorities.

Press Conference

2006-09-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Taiwan Film Festival Press Conference

Time: 5:30pm

Date: September 28, 2006

Place: Ming's Restaurant
1700 Embarcadero Rd., palo Alto, CA
650-856-7700

Contact: Ms. Fenman Wu (415)364-5602

Mr. Lin Cheng-sheng (Dir. Murmur of Youth)
Ms. Huang Yu-shan (Dir. The Starit Story)
Ms. Chien Wei-ssu (Dir. Viva Tonal - the Dance Age)
Ms. Sylvia Feng (Senior Producer, PTS Taiwan)
TECO-SF Press Office
Asia Society Northern California

Press Center

2006-09-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

1. Press Release [WORD]

2. Press Images:
UC Berkeley 3x3
UC Berkeley 9x9

Stanford University 3x3
Stanford University 9x9

Brigham Young University 3x3
Brigham Young University 9x9

University of Washington 3x3
University of Washington 9x9

3. Program PDF file
UC Berkeley

Stanford University

Brigham Young University

University of Washington

4. Trailer
Bay Are (UC Berkeley and Stanford)

Salt Lake City and Provo (Brigham Young University)

Seattle (University of Washington)

Film Festival Trailer

2006-09-18T12:05:00.001-07:00

Chen Lung-nan

2006-09-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

Documentary worker, 29, A-mei (one of the minority groups in Taiwan). Professional documentary worker after graduating in 1999 from National Taiwan University’s, majoring in Sociology in the Social Studies Department. Won the government scholarship for aboriginals in 2003, currently studying film production in America in 2005.

Ocean Fever

Taiwan panorama: Brother Director--Chen Lung-nan

Taiwan Documentary Development Association - Filmmaker's bio - Chen Lung-nan (Mandarin)

Chen Yu-hsun

2006-09-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

NYT Movies - Filmography - Chen Yu-hsun

IMDB.com: Chen Yu-hsun

Hung Hung

2006-09-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

IMDB.com: Hung Hung

台灣電影筆記－人物特寫－鴻鴻(in Mandarin)

Taipei Times:Mirroring the lovely absurdity of Taipei
Director Hung Hung focuses his camera on life in Taiwan's capital city

Monika Treut

2006-09-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

Monika Treut was born in Mönchengladbach, Germany, on April 6, 1954. She studied literature and politics at Philipps-University, Marburg. In the mid-seventies she began working with video. Her PhD thesis: "The Cruel Woman. Female Images in the Writing of Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch" was published in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 1984.

In the mid-eighties Treut started to write, direct and produce award-winning independent features and documentaries which screened at numerous film festivals throughout the world and enjoy international distribution. Retrospectives have been held in Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Taipeh, Toronto, Cambridge, Helsinki, Thessaloniki, Los Angeles and Lisbon. Treut's first feature, co-directed with Elfi Mikesch, was the controversial "Seduction:The Cruel Woman",1985, which since has become a cult classic. The black and white coming-out tale "Virgin Machine" followed in 1988. "My Father Is Coming", a comedy of manners set in New York, was released in 1991. In 1992 Treut began directing documentaries: "Female Misbehavior", four portraits of "bad girls", among them Camille Paglia; "Didn`t Do It For Love" in 1997, a portrait of Norwegian-born Eva Norvind, B-movie star in Mexico, later dominatrix in New York; a group portrait of transgendered cyborgs in San Francisco "Gendernauts" in 1999; and, most recently, Treut completed "Warrior of Light", on Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, an internationally renown artist and human rights activist who works with endangered children in the streets and slums of Rio de Janeiro.

Since 1990 Treut has also been teaching and lecturing at Colleges (Vassar, Hollins, Dartmouth), Art Institutes (SFAI) and Universities (UIC, UCSD) in the U.S. Treut runs the independent film production company, Hyena Films, with offices in Hamburg, Germany.

Hyena Films
Wikipedia: Monika Treut
IMDB.com: Monika Treut

Lin Cheng-sheng

2006-09-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

Lin Cheng-sheng was born in 1959 to a farming family in eastern Taiwan. He left home at 16 and became a baker in Taipei. He attended a directing/scripting workshop in 1986 and began making documentaries. In 1996 he directed his first feature film, A DRIFTING LIFE, for which he was awarded a Silver Medal in the Young Cinema Competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival. His second film, MURMUR of YOUTH, was screened during Director's Week at the Cannes International Film Festival. In 1994, in Chen Yu-hsun's TROPICAAL FISH, Lin gave a superb performance in the role of a kidnapper, an indication of his tremendous talent for acting as well.

NYT Movies - Filmography - Lin Cheng-sheng
IMDB.com: Lin Cheng-sheng

Chien Wei-ssu

2006-09-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

Chien, Wei-Ssu was born in Yi-Lan Taiwan in 1962. She graduated from National Chenchi University in Western Languages and Literature in 1984. After working as a secretary, a theater performer, Chien went to the United States and completed a Master’s degree in Photography & Cinema at the Ohio State University in 1993. She is currently a freelance video/film director/producer and a lecturer at Shih Hsin University. In addition, she has been a council member of Taiwan Women’s Film/Video Association since 1998.

The new new Taiwan cinema: An Interview with Chien Wei-Ssu

Asian Pacific Arts: Musical Verite

Tseng Wen-chen

2006-09-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

Tseng, Wen Chen, a young and highly praised documentary director in Taiwan. In 2002, Spring: the Story of Hsu Chin-Yu won her Best Documentary Award at Golden Horse Awards. She then made documentary Mme. Chiang Kai-Shek for Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation (PTS) and received widely acclaim. This film is PTS’s best-selling documentary to this day. She is one of the most expected directors among the new currents in Taiwan Today. Fishing Luck is her first feature film.

IMDB.com: Tseng Wen-chen
Taiwan Review: Everyday Glamour

Tang Hsiang-chu

2006-09-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

NYT Movies - Filmography - Tang Hsiang-chu

IMDB.com: Tang Hsiang-chu

Huang Yu-shan

2006-09-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

Filmmaker and Associate Professor of the Graduate Institute of Sound & Image Studies in Management, Tainan National College of Arts. Also founder (1993) of Women Make Waves Film & Video Festival in Taiwan.

Received an M.A. in Cinema Studies at the Graduate Institute of New York University.
(From: IMDB.com)

台灣電影筆記：人物特寫> 導演 > 黃玉珊 Huang Yu-Shan （in Mandarin）

Lin Yu-hsien

2006-09-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

Jump into a miracle – interview with Lin Yu-hsien, director of “Jump! Boys”

IMDB.com: Lin Yu-hsien

Taiwan Review: Little Boys, Big Ambitions

Taipei Times: Documenting Success

Ang Lee

2006-09-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a Masters Degree in Film Production at New York University. At NYU, he served as Assistant Director on Spike Lee's student film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983). After Lee wrote a couple of screenplays, he eventually appeared on the film scene with Pushing Hands (1992), a dramatic-comedy reflecting on generational conflicts and cultural adaptation, centering on the metaphor of the grandfather's Tai-Chi technique of "Pushing Hands". The Wedding Banquet (1993) as Lee's next film, an exploration of cultural and generational conflicts through a homosexual Chinese man who feigns a marriage in order to satisfy the traditional demands of his Taiwanese parents - it garnered Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, and won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The third movie in his trilogy of Taiwanese-Culture/Generation films, all of them featuring his patriarch figure Sihung Lung, was Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), which received a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination. Lee followed this with Sense and Sensibility (1995), his first Hollywood-mainstream movie. It acquired a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and won Best Adapted Screenplay, for the film's screenwriter and lead actress, Emma Thompson. Lee was also voted the year's Best Director by the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. Lee and frequent collaborator James Schamus next filmed The Ice Storm (1997) , an adaptation of Rick Moody's novel involving 1970s New England Suburbia. The movie acquired the 1997 Best Screenplay at Cannes for screenwriter James Schamus, among other accolades. The Civil War drama Ride With The Devil (1999) soon followed and received critical praise, but it was Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), that is considered one of his greatest works, a sprawling period film and martial-arts epic that dealt with love, loyalty and loss - it swept the Oscar nominations, eventually winning Best Foreign Language Film, as well as Best Director at the Golden Globes, and became the highest grossing foreign-language film ever released in America. Lee then filmed the comic-book adaptation, Hulk (2003) - an elegantly and skillfully film with nice action scenes. Lee has also shot a short film - Hire, The Chosen (2001) - and most recently won the 2005 Best Director Academy Award for Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film based on a short story by E.Annie Proulx.(From: IMDB.com)

Wikipedia: Ang Lee
NYT Movies - Filmography - Ang Lee

Hou Hsiao-Hsien

2006-09-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

Of the ten films that Hsiao-hsien Hou directed between 1980 and 1989, seven received best film or best director awards from prestigious international films festivals in Venice, Berlin, Hawaii, and the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes. In a 1988 worldwide critics' poll, Hou was championed as "one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema."

Hou's birthplace, a county in Kuangtung Province, had been well-known as an intellectual center in China. In 1948, his family moved to Taiwan and, like all children raised there, he went through an extremely demanding educational system. In 1969, he studied film at the National Taiwan Arts Academy. After graduation in 1972, he worked briefly as a salesman. Later he began his film career as a scriptwriter and assistant director.

Hou's films are often concerned with his experiences of growing up in rural Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s. The 1950s marked a time in which refugee families from the mainland were struggling painfully for survival, while the 1960s saw the beginning of the most significant social change in modern Taiwan. The economic boom of that period meant the beginning of Western-style industrialization and urbanization. The normal frustrations of growing up were aggravated by these complicated changes, and Hou's films are intimate expressions of those experiences.

His emotionally charged work is replete with highly nostalgic images and beautiful compositions; their power lies in his total identification with the past and the fate of families who suffered through difficult times. His stories, often written in collaboration with scriptwriters T'ien-wen Chu and Nien-Jen Wu, depict the complex intertwining of the different strands that shape the lives of individuals. In a poetic yet relaxed style, they reflect a deep sympathy and a profound humanism. (From: IMDB.com)

Wikipedia: Hou Hsiao-hsien
NYT Movies - Filography - Hou Hsiao-hsien
The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien
Director and Films: Hou Hsiao-hsien
City of Sadness

Stan Lai

2006-09-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

One of the most prominent and influential voices in the Chinese language theatre, Stan Lai is also noted for his award-winning films, as well as his long career as an arts educator. His 23 original plays have premiered through either the theatre group Performance Workshop, where he is Artistic Director, or Taipei National University of the Arts, where he is Professor of Theatre and Founding Dean of the College of Theatre.

Lai's plays have been performed throughout the Chinese world. The Peach Blossom Land has toured worldwide, been made into a film, and has had no less than 50 different productions in Beijing alone. His famous "crosstalk" (xiangsheng) series has helped created the large, popular audience base for his critically acclaimed theatrical work. His epic 7 hour A Dream Like A Dream received top awards at the 2003 HK Drama Awards, and has drawn comparisons to Peter Brook's Mahabharata. He is also an accomplished Scenic Designer, and often designs his own plays.

Lai holds a Ph.D. in Dramatic Art from U.C. Berkeley. Among numerous awards, he has received Taiwan��s National Arts Award an unprecedented two times. In the Moment �V the Theatre of Stan Lai (Sha-na-zhong, Taipei: China Times Press, 2003) is the first full length study of his works.

Performance Workshop: Stan Lai
IDA. Artists for 2005: Stan Lai
NYT Movies - Filmography - Stan Lai
Like a Dream of a Dream--Stan Lai's Life in Theater

The Human Comedy

2006-09-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

human1
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

THE HUMAN COMEDY
人間喜劇
Renjian Xiju

Directed by Hung Hung
導演鴻鴻
(2001)

Departed stylistically from the longtake, deepfocus norm of Taiwanese New Cinema, The Human Comedy brings the viewer much closer to the characters. A portrait of a postmodern Taiwan at century's beginning, this film weaves together four different story lines loosely based on anecdotes from The Book of 24 Filial Pieties, a classic compilation of Confucian moral fables. Through the comic shifts and contrasting visual styles of the four stories, presented in seven interrelated episodes, viewers are afforded glimpses into the disintegrating social bonds of a traditional society in transition.

Jump! Boys

2006-09-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

jump
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

Jump! Boys
翻滾吧！男孩
Fangunba! Nanhai

Directed by Lin Yu-Hsien
導演林育賢
(2005)

No videogames or McDonald’s after school: no matter how painstaking the training, these young gymnasts never give up. Each comes from a different background with a different temperament, the only common thing between them is -- they never quit. As one puts it, "I must endure the pain! I must persevere no matter how hard it is, no matter how many times I fall or how much it hurts." An often humorous study of the relationship between the coach and his charges, JUMP! BOYS also offers insight into the broader world of sports in Taiwan.

Dust in the Wind

2006-09-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

dust
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

Dust in the Wind
戀戀風塵
Lianlian fengchen

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsian
導演侯孝賢
(1986)

One of Hou’s earliest commercial and critical successes, DUST IN THE WIND is the story of Wan and Huen, a young couple living in a small mining town in Taiwan. Tired of the demands of school and discontented with the limits of country life, the two quit school and move to Taipei, where they work menial jobs for little money. The monotony of their lives is broken when Wan is drafted into the army -- a fateful turn that alters their lives irrevocably. Filled with grace, beauty, and bittersweet humor, the film is an engaging exploration of love, innocence, and the harsh realities of modern life.

Pushing Hands

2006-08-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

pushing.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

Pushing Hands
推手
Tui Shou

Directed by Ang Lee
導演李安
(1991)

Asian and western cultures collide in Ang Lee’s debut film. The pushing of hands, a tai Chi technique, teaches how to maintain one’s balance while destroying one’s opponent’s. Set in the U.S., the film traces the relationship between a Taiwanese man who has married an American woman, which takes on new complications when the man’s father, a tradition-minded Tai Chi master, moves into their home and their lives. Pushing Hands was the first in Ang Lee’s series of three father-centered films featuring veteran actor Lang Sihong. Lang would go on to appear in Lee’s The Wedding Banquet and the internationally renowned Eat Drink Man Woman.

Spring: The Story of Hsu Chin-yu

2006-08-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

spring.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

SPRING: THE STORY OF HSU CHIN-YU
春天：許金玉的故事
Chuntian: Hsu Chin-Yu de gushi

Directed by Tseng Wen-chen
導演曾文珍
(2003)

Why did Hsu Ching-yu spend many years in prison for participating in an English class and supporting equal pay for Taiwanese and mainland employees? Even worse, her mainland Chinese English teacher was executed. Both were victims of the reactionary White Terror that swept through Taiwan in the 1950s. We meet Hsu as an old woman and follow her as she retraces her past, a history suppressed for four decades but now accessible through this film. By turns an adopted daughter, factory worker, political dissident, wife, and owner of an egg shop, Hsu Ching Yu’s life bears witness to the tumultuous changes in Taiwan over the twentieth century.

The Strait Story

2006-08-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

strait.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

THE STRAIT STORY
南方紀事之浮世光影
Fu Shih Kuang Ying

Directed by Huang Yu-Shan
導演黃玉珊
(2005)

The year was 1943 and Taiwan was under Japanese rule. After finishing his studies in Japan, famous Taiwanese sculptor and painter Huang Ching-cheng boarded the “Takachiho Maru” ship from Kobe, Japan to return home before heading to China for a teaching job. As the huge vessel approached the Keelung harbor, it was torpedoed by an American submarine. The Strait Story is the director’s attempt to recover a lost page of Taiwanese history. Through Shou-shou, a fine art restorer with a crippling illness, film viewers discover Huang’s childhood in rural Taiwan and maturation as an artist in Tokyo, and his enduring passion for art and love.

Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring

2006-08-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

peach.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

SECRET LOVE FOR THE PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING
暗戀桃花源
Anlian Taohuayuan

Directed by Stan Lai
導演賴聲川 (1992)

Two plays collide, as do the memories and emotions of the past and present. Through a scheduling mistake, two troupes find themselves trapped in the same rehearsal space. One play is a lofty, pretentious take on a soap opera while the other is broadly farcical, and yet the plays share common themes. Scenes and dialogues juxtaposed manage to cause offense, create comedy, and point to deeper truths. Based on Stan Lai’s famous play of the same name, the film also works as an allegory depicting a mainlander who fled Chinain 1949. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the original play.

Three Times

2006-08-09T18:54:00.000-07:00

threetimes.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

THREE TIMES
最好的時光
Zuihaode Shiguang

Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
導演侯孝賢
(2005)

Three Times, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s latest work, consists of three lyrical tales of love set in different eras (1911, 1966, and 2005), with actors Shu Qi and Chen Chang playing the couple in each. As the director explains, “It seems to me that by contrasting love stories from three different times, we can feel how people’s behavior is circumscribed by the times and places they live in.” A work of hypnotizing beauty, the film casts a backward gaze at Taiwan’s past and at Hou’s own career, tying together his earlier investigations of history with his recent turn towards contemporary urban life.

Murmur of Youth

2006-08-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

murmur.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

MURMUR OF YOUTH
美麗在唱歌
Meili Zai Changge

Directed by Lin Cheng-Sheng
導演林正盛
(1997)

Lin Sheng-cheng’s second feature, this film is perhaps the first in Taiwan to broach the subject of lesbian desire. The film offers a cross-section of Taipei society with the story of two teenage girls who share the name Mei-li. One Mei-li inhabits the concrete world of high-rise apartment buildings in the city center with her middle-class family; the other lives with her working-class family living in the lushly green outskirts of the city. The two girls’ paths cross when they both take jobs selling movie tickets, and in the cramped space of the ticket booth, their developing friendship takes an amorous turn.

Love Go Go

2006-08-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

love.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

Love Go Go
愛情來了
Aiqing lai le

Directed by Chen Yu-Hsun
導演陳玉勳
(1997)

Mismatched love, isolation, and the universal hope of finding one’s soulmate are the themes of this poignant film set in contemporary urban Taiwan. The story’s various characters each have some connection with the small bakery shop run by Ah Sheng’s aunt. Ah Sheng works in the back of the shop baking and designing pastries; his long-lost schoolmate is the woman who comes in to buy lemon pie; his roommate develops a blind love for the owner of an electronic pager she finds; a young salesman who sells defense gadgets tries to rescue a beautiful woman. This award-winning film is marked by a riot of bright colors, a sometimes anarchic spirit, and an always playful sense of fun.

1997 Golden Horse Awards for best screenplay adapted from another source (Raymond To), best supporting actor (Chuen Hing Chan), and best supporting actress (Wai Chun Liu).

Tigerwomen Grow Wings

2006-08-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

tigerwomen.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

TIGER WOMEN GROW WINGS
母老虎飛飛飛
Mulaohu Feifeifei

Directed by Monika Treut
(2005)

German director Monika Treut focuses her lens on Taiwan, examining the lives of three women of different generations against the backdrop of the socio-political changes of Taiwan and the 2004 presidential election. Treut offers subtle, moving portraits of the famous Taiwanese opera singer Hsieh Yue-hsia, award-winning novelist Li Ang, and up-and-coming filmmaker Chen Ying-rong. Through their eyes and stories, the viewer glimpses the many changes and continuing conflict in Taiwanese society, as well as the raucous campaigning typical of Taiwan elections.

How High Is the Mountain

2006-08-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

mountain.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

HOW HIGH IS THE MOUNTAIN
山有多高

Directed by Tang Hsiang-chu
導演湯湘竹
(2002)

What do family and fatherhood mean in contemporary Taiwan? How do Mainland refugees relate to the families they left behind when they fled to Taiwan in the late-1940s? The director uses his own family to explore the answers to these questions. He not only explores his search for his father's past, but also examines his own recent experience of becoming a father himself. The director and his father return to China to meet relatives and reestablish long-broken ties of kinship through family gatherings, folk rituals and religious ceremonies, and through conversations with family members, teachers, and old friends.

Viva Tonal – The Dance Age

2006-07-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

vivatonal.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

VIVA TONAL – THE DANCE AGE
跳舞時代
Tiaowu Shidai

Directed by Chien Wei-ssu & Kuo Chen-ti
導演簡偉斯郭珍弟
(2003)

"I'm a cultured woman, traveling about footloose and fancy-free…” So begins a lilting tune from Taiwan's "Dance Age" of the 1920s and '30s, a paradoxical time when the island's occupation by Japan also brought youth culture and a measure of artistic freedom. Women smoked cigarettes, love scandals were rife, and risque Taiwanese pop was born. This lively historical documentary mixes engaging interviews with catchy songs, haunting period footage, and reenactments of the unrequited romance between the lovely chanteuse Sun Sun and her songwriter Chen Chun-yu.

U of Washington: Screening Schedule

2006-07-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

Taiwan Film Festival
University of Washington
October 5 - October 8, 2006

Admission to all screenings is free.

Thursday October 5, 2006
Venue: Physics-Astronomy Auditorium A 102

5:30pm Opening Reception with Chien Wei-ssu, Lin Cheng-sheng, Sylvia Feng, Huang Yu-shan

6:00pm Introduction to Taiwanese Cinema and the Film Series
Prof. Yomi braester

6:30pm Viva Tonal—The Dance Age
Chien Wei-ssu and Sylvia Feng (producer) in person

8:45pm Ocean Fever (PA A102)
Sylvia Feng (producer) in person

Friday October 6, 2006
Venue: Physics-Astronomy Auditorium A 102

6:00pm Feminism and Sexuality in Contemporary Taiwan

8:30pm Tigerwomen Grow Wings

6:30pm Murmur of Youth
Lin Cheng-sheng in person

Saturday October 7, 2006
Venue: Physics-Astronomy Auditorium A 102

3:00pm Workshop with Chien Wei-ssu, Lin Cheng-sheng, Sylvia Feng(A 101)

4:30pm Recovering Taiwan's Lost Past
Prof. David Bachman

5:00pm The Strait Story
Huang Yu-shan in person

8:00pm Spring: The Story of Hsu Chin-yu
Sylvia Feng (producer) in person

Sunday October 8
Venue: MOHAI

5:00pm New Taiwan Cinema: Beyond the New Wave
Prof. James Tweedie

5:30pm The Human Comedy

7:45pm Love Go Go

Screening Venue:
Physics-Astronomy Auditorium
Museum of History and Industry

Download Program[PDF: 3.9MB]

Brigham Young: Screening Schedule

2006-07-30T17:14:00.001-07:00

Taiwan Film Festival
Brigham Young University
October 3-6, 2006

Admission to all screenings is free.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006
4:00pm Lecture: Taiwan Yesterday and Today
Professor Eric Hyer, Political Science, BYU
238 HRCB

5:00pm Jump! Boys
HBLL Auditorium

6:40pm Taiwan Film Festival Opening Ceremony
HBLL Auditorium

7:00pm The Strait Story
HBLL Auditorium

8:45pm Reception
238 HRCB/Special Collections

Wednesday, October 4, 2006
4:30pm How High is the Mountain
HBLL Auditorium

5:30pm Lecture: Reunification Reconsidered
Professor Steve Riep, Chinese, BYU
with Sylvia Feng (Senior Producer of PTS, Taiwan)
HBLL Auditorium

6:30pm Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring
250 SWKT

8:30pm Viva Tonal—The Dance Age
250 SWKT

Thursday, October 5, 2006
4:30pm Lecture: Recovering Taiwan’s Lost Past
Professor Steve Riep, Chinese, BYU
238 HRCB

5:45pm Spring: The Story of Hsu Chin-yu
238 HRCB

7:00pm Dust in the Wind
HBLL Auditorium

Friday, October 6, 2006
5:15pm Jump! Boys
SWKT

6:45pm Pushing Hands
250 SWKT

8:45pm Dust in the Wind
250 SWKT

Screening Venues
Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium (HBLL)
250 Spencer W. Kimball Tower (SWKT)
238 Herald R. Clark Building (HRCB)
A complete, interactive campus map is available here.

Local Sponsors
David m. kennedy Center for International Studies
College of Humanities
International Cinema Program
Intercultural Outreach

Download Program[PDF: 3.8MB]

Stanford: Screening Schedule

2006-07-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Taiwan Film Festival
Stanford University
September 29 - October 1, 2006

Friday September 29, 2006
*Free Admission*

6:30pm Welcome
6:45pm Viva Tonal—The Dance Age
8:20pm Panel Discussion with Chien Wei-ssu, Sylvia Feng (producer)
Moderator: Jean Ma
9:15pm Love Go Go

Saturday September 30
*Free Admission*

6:30pm Introduction
6:35pm Tigerwomen Grow Wings
8:00pm Panel Discussion with ~~Monika Treut and~~ Lin Cheng-sheng
Moderator: Jean Ma
8:45 Murmur of Youth

Lin Cheng-sheng in person

Sunday October 1
*Admission: $5 per person*

3:00pm Introduction by Prof. Jean Ma
3:15pm Three Times

Screening Venue:
Cubberley Auditorium, Stanford University
Presented by:
Center for East Asian Studies, Stanford University
Additional Sponsors:
Film and Media Studies Program, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University

Download Program[PDF: 3.5MB]

Note: Monika Treut has cancelled her trip.

Berkeley: Screening Schedule

2006-07-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

Taiwan Film Festival
University of California at Berkeley
September 29 - October 1, 2006

Admission to all screenings is free. Seating is limited. Seats available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Friday September 29, 2006

3:00pm Murmur of Youth (PFA)
Lin Cheng-sheng in person

5:30pm Opening Reception w/ ~~Monika Treut,~~ Huang Yu-shan, and Lin Cheng sheng at the Berkeley Art Museum

7:00pm Tigerwomen Grow Wings
(BAM)
~~Monika Treut in person~~

Saturday September 30

2:30pm Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring (PFA)

4:00pm How High is the Mountain (PFA)

5:30pm Workshop: Film and Culture in Contemporary Taiwan

7:00pm Ocean Fever (PFA)
Sylvia Feng (producer) in person

9:00pm Love Go Go

Sunday October 1

7:30pm Viva Tonal—The Dance Age (PFA)
Chien Wei-ssu and Sylvia Feng (producer) in person

9:30pm The Strait Story (PFA)
Huang Yu-shan in person

Screening Venue:
Pacific Film Archive and Berkeley Art Museum

Download Program[PDF:4MB]

Note: Monika Treut has cancelled her trip.

Ocean Fever

2006-07-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

oceanfever.jpg
Originally uploaded by claireclaire.

OCEAN FEVER
海洋熱
Haiyang Re

Directed by Chen Lung-nan
導演陳龍男
(2004)

This verite portrait of young rock ‘n rollers was an audience favorite at the 2004 Taipei Film Festival. Aboriginal Taiwanese director Chen Lung-nan takes a fly-on-the-wall approach to chronicling the experience of five fledgling bands including a raucous rapmetal combo called Stone and the punkish girl trio Hotpink in the heady days before they perform at the Ho-Hai-Yan Rock Festival, a massive beachside talent contest for aspiring pop acts. In classic “rockumentary” fashion, the film captures the hopes and dreams (not to mention the personal doubts and unexpected setbacks) of the competing bands while offering an affectionate look at contemporary youth culture in Taiwan.

Beyond the New Wave

2006-07-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Taiwan Film Festival, to be held at Berkeley, Stanford, Brigham Young, and the University of Washington in September-October 2006, will showcase eight feature and documentary films that reflect the quality, range, and vitality of contemporary Taiwanese film-making.

Taiwanese film has moved far beyond the formulaic melodramas, teen romance, and kung-fu films of the 1950s and 1960s as well as the breakthrough “New Wave” of the 1980s. New Wave masters like Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang made Taiwanese cinema world-famous, with their realist, non-narrative films focused on exploring Taiwanese history and telling the stories of ordinary people.

Since the New Wave, Taiwanese cinema has evolved in many directions: refreshing new takes on Taiwan’s buried past (Viva Tonal – The Dance Age, The Strait Story) and Taiwan’s conflicted relationship with the Mainland (Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring, How High is the Mountain?), a new focus on women, gender issues, and sexuality (Murmur of Youth, Tigerwomen Grow Wings), and exuberant celebrations of youth and popular culture (Love Go Go, Ocean Fever). More than ever, Taiwanese filmmaking today shows a wide range of styles, subject matter, and mood.

Something altogether new is the explosion of high-quality documentary films. Fuelled by ongoing debates over Taiwanese identity as well as the spread of inexpensive digital cameras and editing software, documentary films in Taiwan have soured in number and in popularity. They have also been winning critical acclaim both at home and abroad.

Nonetheless – and far more so than feature films – even the best of these documentaries are rarely screened and little known in the U.S. This festival aims to fill this gap, presenting the best in recent documentary films paired with feature films that explore similar themes. The series will also feature the latest work by the renowned German filmmaker Monica Treut, an engaging portrait of three women in modern Taiwan (including filmmaker DJ Chen).

2006 Taiwan Film Festival

2006-07-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Taiwan Film Festival, to be held in four universities in late September and early October 2006, will showcase prominent both feature films and the work of Taiwan’s newest and most promising documentary filmmakers: Chen Lung-nan, Chien Wei-ssu, Juang Yi-Tseng, Kuo Chen-ti, Lin Yu-Hsien, Tang Shiang-Chu, and Yen Lan-Chuan.

A surprisingly of the important works of Taiwan feature filmmakers depicting the changes of Taiwan have rarely been screened in the US. Films such as Hou Hisao-Hsian’s coming-of-age trilogy present the realities of life and the beautiful scenery of Taiwan country side while “Pushing Hand” (Ang Lee) depict the conflicts and bafflement between generations coming from different cultural traditions. More recent works such as “The Straits Story” show an artist’s pursue of love, art and life in the 1920s while “The Passage” captures unrequited love and fascination with ancient art and its history.

While Taiwan feature filmmaking may have languished in recent years, documentary filmmaking has exploded. In a context of growing democratization, new debates over Taiwanese identity, and the spread of inexpensive digital cameras and editing software, documentary films in Taiwan have soured in number and in popularity. They have also been winning critical acclaim both domestically and abroad.

Nonetheless – and far more so compared to feature films -- Taiwanese documentary films are rarely screened and little known in the U.S. This series aims to fill this gap, presenting the best in recent documentary filmmaking in Taiwan. The series will also feature the latest work by the renowned German filmmaker Monica Treut, an engaging portrait of three women in modern Taiwan (including filmmaker DJ Chen).

The goal of this film festival is to showcase prominent Taiwanese film works. Program on each campus will include four double-feature screenings, pairing one feature film with one documentary film, showing a total of eight films. The documentaries and features for each screening will be selected to compliment each other in depicting a specific time period or to offer parallel windows onto a specific aspect of Taiwan society, history, politics, or culture. Altogether, the film festival will serve to introduce the ever-changing faces of Taiwan.