A crowdfunding campaign was on Thursday launched to help finish a movie about three women incarcerated on Green Island, the first Taiwanese film to address female political prisoners during the Martial Law era.
Untold Herstory, which has finished principal photography, focuses on three fictional women incarcerated on Green Island in the 1950s. It is adapted from Tsao Chin-jung’s (曹欽榮) Bonfire Island: Untold Herstory, a collection of interviews with women who had been imprisoned on the island.
The filmmakers hope to raise NT$10 million (US$334,024) in the online fundraising campaign to cover post-production costs, promotion, and domestic and international distribution.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Film Corp via CNA
The movie stars Yu Pei-jen (余佩真), who portrays a 17-year-old high-school student; Herb Hsu (徐麗雯) as a young mother named Yan Shui-hsia (嚴水霞); and Cindy Lien (連俞涵), who plays a dancer.
Director Zero Chou (周美玲) said that the women Tsao interviewed and their willpower to survive while holding onto their values resonated with her.
She hopes the movie conveys the same grit, courage and tenacity she felt in the words of the women, Chou said.
“Hopefully, this film will become an important testament to the age of transitional justice,” she added.
The film crew spent more than a year scouting the site of the former prison on Green Island off the southeast of Taiwan, as well as talking with political prisoners and their relatives, she said.
However, all that remained of the prison were some wooden pillars, so the crew had to build a set from scratch, she said.
“The greatest challenge that the actors faced was to deliver their lines in the native dialect of the characters they portray, and use the correct terminology of the times to faithfully capture the zeitgeist of the 1950s,” the director said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated