A biennial film festival showing nearly 140 short and long-form documentaries opened in New Taipei City on Friday, offering a glimpse of the world through the lenses of filmmakers from Taiwan, other parts of Asia and Europe.
The 14th edition of the Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) opened with two works from the 1970s made by late photographer and filmmaker Chang Chao-tang (張照堂) — Homage to Chen Da and The Boat-burning Festival.
In the two films, Chang used images to depict the people of Taiwan and the land they lived on, said Arthur Chu (褚明仁), chairman of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI), the main organizer of the festival that runs through May 19.
Describing Chang as his “mentor,” the festival’s curator Wood Lin (林木材) said the selection of the two films for the opening was “a tribute” to the renowned photographer, who died last month aged 80.
Aside from documentaries by Chang and many other Taiwanese filmmakers, the TIDF is to also showcase 10 Ukrainian works that portray the struggles of Ukrainians in the face of Russia’s invasions in 2014 and 2022, Chu said.
The selections were the result of the collaboration, for the first time, between the TIDF and the Ukraine-based Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.
The TIDF also features 26 Burmese short films and documentaries, highlighting the independent documentary scene in Myanmar amid political volatility, Chu said.
In the “Filmmakers in Focus” section, the festival is to screen 13 works by two Slovak directors — Peter Kerekes and Viera Cakanyova — who experienced the transition from Czechslovakian communism to present-day democratic Slovakia, the TFAI said.
The selected works include Kerekes’ Cooking History that delves into European wars through the accounts of wartime cooks and Cakanyova’s Alda, which draws inspiration from the diary and video footage of an Alzheimer’s patient.
The nine-day festival is also to feature more than 100 talks, some of which would be attended by directors, and six performances inspired by documentaries, as well as an exhibition featuring government archives and footage, the TFAI said.
As part of the festival, more than 40 of the selected documentaries have been shortlisted for the Asian Vision Competition, the International Competition and the Taiwan Competition.
The winner of each category, as well as the recipient of an additional TIDF Visionary Award, would be announced on Friday, the organizer 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
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
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS