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.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS