For a testament to the presence of underground amateur film talent in Taipei, as well as to the concept that almost anyone can make movies now with a Guanghua-market PC and a cheap handycam, look no further than the Urban Nomad film festival, which starts today and runs through Sunday. The event screens a selection of short films by expat and local filmmakers that, while often extravagantly lo-fi in their production, are a refreshing break from the earnestness of Taipei's other film festivals.
This year, the organizers have tightened up their programming to cut down on the genuinely bad movies that have marred previous Urban Nomads and selected the choice cuts from among the movies submitted. They also solicited films from abroad and at colleges in Taiwan. So, this year's lineup of movies will try to balance the quirkiness of amateur alternative film with some near-professional level films to make the audience feel like their NT$200 wouldn't have been better spent on the latest Hollywood schlock flick.
A sneak preview of a handful of the scheduled movies shows plenty of promise. Tomorrow's digital shorts category will include former Taipei resident Jay Spieden's gory animation Choppy the Chimp and Les Arthur's Street Pong. In this second movie, two ping-pong players wheel their table through the streets of Taiwan to play in some random locations like in front of a Family Mart and eventually end up on a beach with the tide coming to add tension to their dramatic match point. It's not brilliant, but it's fun.
PHOTO COURTESY OF URBAN NOMAD
Norman Szabo's Dignity, which also screens tomorrow in the same category, enjoys some surprisingly good acting from local expats, as does TC Lin's spy thriller Clay Soldiers. Lin's film was submitted to the ladyxfilms.com film project that collects amateur spy flicks from around the world, and, in keeping with the genre's tradition, there are mysterious and ravishing ladies, a secret disc and a high-speed chase with bullets flying.
In tonight's program, two of the films previewed that are worth cheking out are The Locust, which is basically a music video for the LA band by the same name, and The Varieties of Romantic Experience, a short by Northwestern University film student Dan Freed shot with professional actors.
The highlight of the festival will be Sunday's screening of Aza Jakob's feature film Nobody Needs to Know, which has a synopsis on the film's own Web site that is entirely incomprehensible, but suggests a theme that explores the notion of the camera -- both the closed-circuit and the film kind -- as a tool of control. Part of the festival's program will be a free workshop tomorrow at Huashan Arts District by Ulead software company to tutor amateur filmmakers in its editing software.
PHOTO COURTESY OF URBAN NOMAD
PHOTO COURTESY OF URBAN NOMAD
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
Despite the intense sunshine, we were hardly breaking a sweat as we cruised along the flat, dedicated bike lane, well protected from the heat by a canopy of trees. The electric assist on the bikes likely made a difference, too. Far removed from the bustle and noise of the Taichung traffic, we admired the serene rural scenery, making our way over rivers, alongside rice paddies and through pear orchards. Our route for the day covered two bike paths that connect in Fengyuan District (豐原) and are best done together. The Hou-Feng Bike Path (后豐鐵馬道) runs southward from Houli District (后里) while the
President William Lai’s (賴清德) March 13 national security speech marked a turning point. He signaled that the government was finally getting serious about a whole-of-society approach to defending the nation. The presidential office summarized his speech succinctly: “President Lai introduced 17 major strategies to respond to five major national security and united front threats Taiwan now faces: China’s threat to national sovereignty, its threats from infiltration and espionage activities targeting Taiwan’s military, its threats aimed at obscuring the national identity of the people of Taiwan, its threats from united front infiltration into Taiwanese society through cross-strait exchanges, and its threats from
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
RSS